State Policy Choices Play Big Role in Medicaid Disenrollment Rates

At least 13.3 million people lost their Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage and another 24.9 million had their coverage renewed as of December 2023, according to the KFF Medicaid enrollment and unwinding tracker. Starting April 1, 2023, states were permitted to resume disenrolling people from Medicaid who were no longer eligible or failed to complete the redetermination process after a multiyear pause during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The disenrollment rate so far has ranged from 62% in Texas to 10% in Maine. Overall, 71% of coverage losses were due to procedural reasons, when individuals didn’t complete their renewal process within a specific time frame or the state was unable to reach them. Over 90% of disenrolled people had their Medicaid coverage terminated for procedural reasons in New Mexico (95%), Utah (94%) and Nevada (91%).