The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), UnidosUS and nine other leading civil rights organizations released a report detailing how the United States is suffering an avoidable civil rights and health equity disaster, six months after the end of the era's continued Medicaid eligibility requirements. of the pandemic.
At a press conference, Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, pointed out how the health rights system has failed the most vulnerable people for years, until the COVID-19 pandemic brought medical needs to light.
“It is a sad reality that it took a global pandemic for our nation's elected leaders to expand lifesaving health care services to working Americans. The fact is, our health care system has long failed our most vulnerable,” Johnson said.
He pointed out that the report's data "are further proof that the (Medicaid) disenrollment process is riddled with racism."
?We will not stand by as millions within our community are once again left without a lifeline. We are proud to stand with UnidosUS and other leading civil rights organizations to urge an immediate pause on all Medicaid disenrollments.
In that sense, he highlighted that state leaders must do everything possible to re-enroll those who have lost coverage, taking advantage of available data to verify eligibility or providing easily accessible support to complete the paperwork necessary to confirm eligibility.
Disenrollment has led to the deepest and steepest decline in Medicaid in history, with nearly 8 million people losing coverage in just six months, he stressed.
Additionally, the report found that three-quarters of people who lost coverage were fired for procedural reasons, most often due to simple paperwork problems.
As a result of this investigation, civil rights organizations are calling on states to suspend procedural terminations until a new process is implemented that would dramatically reduce procedural termination rates.
While few states have shared disenrollment data by race and ethnicity, based on the known demographic characteristics of Medicaid beneficiaries in each state, at least 54 percent of beneficiaries who have lost Medicaid are people of color, the analysis revealed. .
Additionally, the report's findings showed that disenrollment has caused more children than ever to lose Medicaid coverage.
The NAACP co-authored the report along with the Asian and Pacific American Health Forum, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Council of Black Women, the National Urban League, the National Council on Urban Indian Health, the Southern Poverty Law Center and UnidosUS, and the Coalition on Human Needs and Protecting Our Care.
The report can be consulted by clicking click here.
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