Thousands Of MO, KS Kids Are Losing Health Coverage Due To State Paperwork Errors

Posted September 27, 2023

More than 12,000 children were removed from Missouri’s Medicaid program in August due in large part to the state’s reassessing of residents’ eligibility for Medicaid following the pandemic pause.

Data from the Missouri Department of Social Services shows approximately 49 percent of terminations from June through August were terminations of children’s Medicaid coverage, the Missouri Independent reported on Tuesday.

Since June, the state has been in a year-long process of reassessing Missourians’ eligibility for Medicaid. From June through August, nearly 40,000 children lost coverage, according to nonprofit KFF.

Additionally, Kansas is not fairing much better as more than half of the approximate 81,000 people in Kansas who lost Medicaid at the end of August were in fact children, according to KFF.

Missouri and Kansas are both a part of the group of 30 states that have been reassessing statuses incorrectly, The New York Times reported.

The Biden administration ordered states experiencing errors in reassessments to stop procedural disenrollments, a process where a recipient does not confirm eligibility with their state Medicaid agency and loses coverage.

Nearly 500,000 people, a significant portion being kids, improperly lost Medicaid coverage as a result of these procedural disenrollments, and state officials have confirmed their insurance will be restored.