OHIO — Medicaid has helped millions of people each year and during the pandemic, that number grew even larger.
States could not take people off of Medicaid even if they were no longer eligible for it. Lindsey Brigano, with the Ohio Department of Medicaid, explained what this program is.
“Medicaid is a health insurance program for folks who are generally low income, for pregnant women and children and for those who have disabilities. It is a government insurance program,” she said.
It has been announced that it will change on April 1st. Brigano said the states can begin unenrolling people who are no longer eligible for Medicaid.
“Nothing in terms of the eligibility for the program has changed. The biggest difference is that’s happening now is since February of 2020 until now, we have not been allowed to disenroll anybody who was ineligible for the program,” she said.
She said that there are other options for people if they become unenrolled.
“There are a couple of different options for people if they are found no longer eligible for the program. Obviously, if they do have a job, they’ll want to see if employer-sponsored insurance is something that’s available to them. If not, you know there is the ACA marketplace, or the exchange, that folks can apply for a plan on,” she said.
Brigano said there are other organizations and people to help.
“We have also partnered with the Ohio Association of Food Banks. They received a Navigator grant through the federal government and so there are federal navigators available which who are people who are well-versed in different kinds of insurance products that are out there,” she said.
She said people will not be immediately unenrolled, that it will depend on the anniversary of when they first enrolled in the Medicaid program.
“This is a process that is going to be monthly, it’s going to happen over a period of one year and everybody has a different renewal date,” she said.
The Ohio Department of Medicaid also suggested being careful of potential scammers in the coming months pretending to be from Medicaid.
