Medicaid coverage will end for millions of Americans in the coming months, and the loss of coverage is expected to impact nearly 350,000 people in Virginia.
Nearly 85 million people nationwide are covered by government-funded Medicaid, which focuses on people with low incomes.
Virginia’s Department of Medicaid Assistant Services estimates that approximately 351,000 individuals will lose Medicaid eligibility during a year-long unwinding process.
Ashley Greene with the Western Tidewater Free Clinic told News 3 the redetermination process typically happens annually, but the public health emergency for COVID put that on pause for several years.
“It may sound scary, but it really is what the normal process would be,” said Greene.
To make sure you receive your Medicaid renewal packet, your contact information must be updated. You can do that by:
- Go online to commonhelp.virginia.gov
- Call Cover Virginia at 833-5CALLVA
- Call your local social services office
“They will be mailing out these notices and they will be giving them a certain amount of grace period to get their re-enrollment back in, and it’s critical that the information lands where it’s supposed to go,” said Greene.
If you do lose Medicaid eligibility, in Virginia, you can get health care via the Virginia Association of Free & Charitable Clinics network.
“We all want patients who are eligible for Medicaid coverage to get it,” said Greene. "And if not, the clinics will be here to support patients, to make sure they are seen and receive healthcare.”
At the start of the pandemic, the federal government prohibited states from kicking people off Medicaid if they were no longer eligible. That ban ends this spring, and many people on Medicaid will be introduced to this so-called redetermination process for the first time since 2020.
Federal officials estimate that more than 8 million people will lose eligibility and leave Medicaid mainly because their incomes have changed.
The Medicaid redetermination process begins April 1.
