Medicaid enrollment skyrocketed to cover one in four Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, as states agreed not to boot individuals off Medicaid in return for more generous federal funding.
However, that agreement ended in April 2023, allowing states to once again assess the eligibility of their Medicaid beneficiaries. At least 19.6 million people have lost coverage to date as a result, according to a tracker by health policy research nonprofit KFF. States are expected to finish unwinding by the middle of this year.
