WISCONSIN (Civic Media) – According to data from the state Department of Health Services, about 44,000 Wisconsinites were kicked off of Medicaid last month. That’s after COVID-era protections come to an end, and all Medicaid users have to renew their status, a process known as “unwinding.”

Over 97,000 people were told to renew last month, and about 44,000 people retained their Medicaid coverage.

Of those unenrolled, 14,000 people completed the renewal process and were found ineligible for continued coverage. Another 30,000 people did not begin the renewal process. People who never filed the renewal paperwork last month have three months to file and potentially restart their Medicaid coverage.

About 8,000 renewal cases are still pending.

Data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services

There were over 1.6 million Wisconsin residents enrolled in some form of Medicaid at the beginning of this year, all of whom will have to renew in monthly groups before May of next year. During the early days of the COVID pandemic, a pause was placed on Medicaid enrollment. During the pause, which ended in June of this year, enrollment in Wisconsin grew by 41%.

In the first two months of the unwinding process, about 118,000 people lost Medicaid access in Wisconsin.

Earlier this year, Governor Tony Evers included a provision in his proposed biennial budget to expand Medicaid using federal funds. Republicans in the Joint Finance Committee removed that proposal from the budget in May. Wisconsin is one of only ten states to not accept a federally allowed expansion of Medicaid.

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