Pandemic-era program will expire on March 31, sparking redeterminations

•February 15, 2023•
By Peter Hancock
Capitol News Illinois
phancock @ capitolnewsillinois.com

As many as 700,000 Illinoisans may lose Medicaid coverage in the months following March 31, but the Department of Healthcare and Family Services says it is working to reduce that number and help those affected find health insurance elsewhere.
Medicaid is a health insurance program for poor and disabled people that is jointly funded by the federal government and the states.
A spending bill that Congress passed in December put an end to a pandemic-era rule that sent billions of additional federal dollars to states that kept Medicaid patients continuously enrolled in the program through the end of the public health emergency.
Under the program that will expire on March 31, those enrolled in Medicaid did not have to go through the normal process of reapplying every 12 months to determine whether they were eligible, even if there were changes in their income or household that would normally make them ineligible.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.