At Friday’s Medicaid Council meeting we learned that
167
of the 1,215 HUSKY parents that lost coverage last year were able to buy
insurance from the health insurance exchange. Unfortunately 32 former HUSKY
parents initially signed up for insurance through AccessHealthCT, but later
lost coverage because they didn’t pay their premiums. It is not clear if they
found other coverage or weren’t able to afford coverage at all and are now
uninsured. It is unclear how many have been able to stay on HUSKY because they
remain eligible in another category. At least three HUSKY parents cut off the
program left their original households and now are eligible as single households.
Council members expressed concern about the potential implications of the cuts
for keeping families together. Another 18,389 HUSKY parents are scheduled to
lose coverage on July 31, 2016 unless the state reverses the cuts.
We also heard that the backlog of pdf applications is now
gone, so application delays should be far lower. Total
Medicaid
eligibility has fluctuated over the last year because of the pdf problem,
the shift to MAGI income eligibility and HUSKY parents’ cuts. As of last month,
716,833 state residents were enrolled in Medicaid.
