NurseWeek

Parents off welfare lose Medicaid coverage

By Cathryn Domrose
July 8, 2000


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Washington. Nearly 1 million low-income parents in 15 states have lost Medicaid coverage since 1996, mainly because they have gone from welfare to work, a Washington, D.C.-based health care consumer group reports.

Texas had the highest percentage of parents dropped from Medicaid – 30 percent – in the last two years, and a total enrollment drop of 46 percent in the four years studied, according to the report released in June by Families USA.

"These are parents who are doing what they’re told – leaving welfare and going to work," said Rachel Klein, MPP, health policy analyst at Families USA. "When they do this, their reward for leaving welfare is losing their health insurance."

The number of poor children in insurance programs has stayed about the same since welfare reform was introduced, the study shows. The new Children’s Health Insurance Program and an expanded Medicaid seem to be keeping children insured, Klein said. But no similar programs exist for their parents.

Some states have acted quickly, Klein said. California, which has the largest number of uninsured parents in the country, noticed the problem early and immediately stopped taking former welfare recipients off Medicaid, she said.

As a result, California’s Medicaid enrollment dropped less than 1 percent in 1998 and 1999, the last two years of the study.

State officials in Texas say they have sent notices to more than 275,000 people who have left welfare rolls since 1996 to inform them they still may qualify for Medicaid.

"We’re putting out a pretty strong effort," said Chris Traylor, spokesman for the Texas Department of Human Services. "If they touch base with us in some way, they will be able to see if they qualify for Medicaid."