Mississippi, as with the rest of the country, has been steadily lopping people off the Medicaid rolls for the past two months.
In June alone, 29,000 people in Mississippi were removed from the government health insurance program that provides coverage to the poor, disabled and elderly.
The substantial purging is not nefarious, though. It is the result of catching up on eligibility checks that had been suspended, by federal government order, for more than three years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Once on the Medicaid rolls during this time, there was no coming off them, no matter how a person’s circumstances or income changed. For instance, pregnant women who would normally have lost their Medicaid coverage a couple of months after giving birth (now 12 months following a legislative change this year) remained on the program as long as the declaration of a public health emergency remained in effect.