Pennie TM Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity (Comparison 2022-2023)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
80.0%
Population under 19 Sept 2022 Enrollment Sept 2023 Enrollment
70.0%
Source: PPC analysis, Pennsylvania Health Insurance Exchange Authority, (2022-2023) Pennie TM [Data sets]. *Includes population counts for American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and Some Other Race.
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
Non-Hispanic Black
Non-Hispanic White
Non-Hispanic Two or More Races
Hispanic
Other or Unknown Race/Ethnicity*
Non-Hispanic Asian
How Medicaid Unwinding is Impacting PA Children
What is Medicaid “unwinding?” Pennsylvania families who rely on Medicaid for health insurance for themselves and their children began seeing a big change to the rules this past spring. Renewing Medicaid coverage restarted on April 1, 2023, for the first time in three years after Congress ended the continuous coverage requirement that had been in place since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Like most states, Pennsylvania is using a year-long process to unwind the disenrollment freeze and resume regular pre-pandemic eligibility and enrollment operations. What does it mean for kids enrolled in Medicaid? As would be expected, pausing disenrollments for three years had a significant impact on the total number of enrollees. Child enrollment in Medicaid increased by 22% during that time, peaking at well over 1.4 million children.
Because of the significant task for DHS, along with a high risk for loss of eligible coverage, PPC has two key objectives during the unwinding process: • Make sure children who remain eligible for Medicaid stay enrolled without gaps in coverage. Inappropriate terminations or temporary loss in coverage and then re- enrolling, called “churn,” often impact children more than the adult population. xi • Make sure children who no longer qualify for Medicaid are quickly connected to CHIP to avoid gaps in coverage. DHS’ timing to transition the duties of CHIP enrollment from CHIP managed care organizations to DHS county assistance offices (more details in the CHIP section on page 16) has complicated this process.
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Health Insurance Trends During the Final Year of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency
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