KUAR | By Daniel Breen
Arkansas’ overall Medicaid enrollment has dropped nearly 15% in two months with about 140,000 people deemed ineligible for coverage since April. A report released Thursday by the state Department of Human Services shows 68,838 people lost coverage in May.
States were not allowed to terminate Medicaid coverage during the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, which ended in May. Arkansas began the process of re-determining eligibility in April, when roughly 72,000 recipients lost coverage.
The largest number of people to lose coverage in May were enrolled in ARHOME, the state's Medicaid expansion program. That was followed by ARKids A, which serves children from the lowest-income families in the state.
Daniel Breen/KUAR News
Representatives of the group Arkansas Community Organizations display signs with some of their demands for streamlining the Medicaid redetermination process in front of the Arkansas State Capitol on Thursday.