TL/DR –
Erica Olenski, a single mother of three whose 5-year-old son, August, is battling brain cancer, had to fight to maintain her son’s Medicaid coverage after receiving a notice to provide proof of employment or lose the benefit. This comes as millions of Medicaid enrollees are being reassessed on a large scale for eligibility due to the ‘unwinding’ phenomenon following a three-year freeze on checks during the Covid pandemic. As of Dec. 20, at least 13 million people were disenrolled from Medicaid in 2023, with Texas leading in disenrollments at around 1.7 million, and over 70% of Medicaid disenrollments were due to procedural reasons, such as missing paperwork.
Texas Mom Battles Medicaid Unwinding Amid Son’s Cancer Treatment
Erica Olenski from McKinney, Texas, is a full-time working single mother of three, with her youngest, five-year-old August, battling brain cancer since 2019. While he was declared cancer-free in 2020, complications persisted, and he relapsed in September this year, necessitating another round of radiation treatment. Amid this, Olenski received a letter stating that August and a sibling, previously covered under Medicaid, were no longer eligible unless she could verify her employment, with approximately three weeks before coverage ceased.
“It’s already stressful enough to go through cancer treatment with a child. Pediatric cancer is awful. It’s absolutely awful,” said Olenski. She lamented that an “administrative issue” was threatening their stability and safety during their time of trauma. Medicaid was a lifeline for August, covering his radiation treatment and private 24/7 nursing care.
Olenski’s family is among many affected by the process known as Medicaid “unwinding”. This phenomenon involves re-evaluating the eligibility of Medicaid’s enrollees at a vast scale due to the lifting of a three-year pause on eligibility checks during the Covid pandemic. Medicaid, a government-provided health insurance for low-income individuals or those with disabilities, froze coverage checks in March 2020 as part of the public health emergency, enabling continuous enrollment.
However, this process ceased when President Joe Biden ended the emergency in the spring. As a result, Medicaid unwinding has seen many people across the country receiving letters like Olenski’s, which is expected to continue through May. To date, 13 million people have been disenrolled from Medicaid in 2023, causing a net enrollment drop of approximately 7.8 million as per an analysis by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.
Being dropped from Medicaid could have dire consequences. Jaeson Fournier, CEO of CommUnityCare Health Centers in Austin, Texas, warned that a lapse in coverage could exacerbate existing medical conditions. Lack of insurance access, including Medicaid, often results in the forgoing of needed services due to cost.
Texas has seen the highest number of Medicaid disenrollments in the U.S., with around 1.7 million this year, and nearly 990,000 renewal applications denied for procedural reasons. Daniel Tsai, director of the Center for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Services, said his team worked with Texas officials to review eligibility evaluation processes and cases of lost Medicaid, reinstating over 90,000 people who were incorrectly disenrolled.
Post-pandemic, Medicaid unwinding required an “unprecedented level of effort” to catch up due to record high Medicaid enrollment during the crisis. Yet, Marisol Garcia, a financial assistant at CommUnityCare Health Centers, noted many unknowingly lost their Medicaid benefits. Additionally, the Georgetown analysis reported a net enrollment decline of over 3.2 million children on Medicaid this year.
Olenski, a healthcare communication professional, spent weeks attempting to maintain August’s Medicaid coverage, finally managing to briefly reinstate it. She emphasized her primary role as a parent and advocate for her son rather than tackling unnecessary administrative issues.
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