Lansing, Michigan – Michigan’s Medicaid and CHIP enrollment has dropped dramatically, with nearly 700,000 people removed from the programs between March 2023 and October 2024. This decline has occurred following the termination of COVID-19 emergency policies that had previously protected public insurance coverage.
According to data from the health care research nonprofit KFF, enrollment in Michigan’s Medicaid and CHIP programs fell from approximately 3.1 million to slightly less than 2.7 million over the course of 19 months.
Michigan’s 23% decline is significantly higher than the national average of 16%. Though still lower than Montana’s 57 percent, Michigan’s disenrollment rate stands out at 38 percent, one of the highest among states such as Texas and Florida, where even more people are losing coverage.
This drop is primarily caused by the expiration of the protections established under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020.
The Act required states to continue Medicaid and CHIP coverage for emergency enrollees, effectively ending regular eligibility checks. States resumed eligibility verifications after the clauses expired in March 2023, resulting in a significant number of disenrollments in Michigan and across the country.
A sizable portion of the disenrollment, estimated at 25.2 million nationwide, was due to the Medicaid “unwinding” program.
According to KFF, many people failed to renew their coverage due to procedural issues rather than ineligibility. These included delays, difficult administrative procedures, and a lack of understanding of the renewal requirements.
Surprisingly, a June report by the Center for Health & Research Transformation discovered that 82% of people disenrolled in Michigan were removed from the plan for procedural reasons such as flaws in the state’s renewal system, missing documents, or unnoticed notifications.
Many former Medicaid enrollees have been left in the dark about their eligibility status as the continuous enrollment policy is phased out. According to a KFF poll conducted early last year, the majority of Americans were unaware that the pandemic-era restrictions had expired; 69 percent said they had heard little to nothing about the procedure.
The focus now shifts to raising public awareness and streamlining administrative processes, while the national unwinding process continues to ensure that eligible individuals can keep or renew their coverage without difficulty.
The high rate of procedural disenrollment indicates an urgent need for more simplified procedures and improved communication to assist individuals in need of these critical health services.
