Medicaid “Unwinding” Information & Resources

The Biden Administration has announced that it will end the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency declarations on May 11^th. As these emergency declarations expire, many expanded Medicaid enrollment protections and increases in federal funding will expire or change.

Notably, since March 2020, in order to receive additional federal matching dollars, states have not been allowed to disenroll people from Medicaid. However, beginning on April 1^st, states may begin to “unwind” this coverage protection and disenroll families and children who no longer qualify. Experts predict that children will experience some of the largest enrollment declines.

In addition, Medicaid and CHIP 1135 Emergency Waivers, Medicaid Disaster SPAs, and CHIP Disaster SPAs will be affected by the end of these emergency declarations. The use and implementation of these flexibilities going forward will vary by state.

The Center for Children & Families (CCF) of the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute has developed resources to help keep eligible children and families enrolled in Medicaid when the protections expire. The resources include a webinar series and a state-by-state tracker of the unwinding process. All current and future resources can be found here.