Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker

Note: This tracker was first published on May 3 and is updated regularly as new data become available.

The Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker presents the most recent data on monthly Medicaid enrollment, renewals, disenrollments, and other key indicators reported by states during the unwinding of the Medicaid continuous enrollment provision. The unwinding data are pulled from state websites, where available, and from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

To view data for specific states, click on the State Enrollment and Unwinding Data tab. 

State Medicaid Disenrollment Data

• At least 2,181,000 Medicaid enrollees have been disenrolled as of July 14, 2023, based on the most current data from 30 states and the District of Columbia. Overall, 37% of people with a completed renewal were disenrolled in reporting states while 63%, or 3.4 million enrollees, had their coverage renewed (four of the reporting states do not provide data on renewed enrollees). Because not all states have publicly available data on total disenrollments, the data reported here undercount the actual number of disenrollments.
• There is wide variation in disenrollment rates across reporting states, ranging from 76% in Idaho to 10% in Michigan. For Idaho, the disenrollment rate is among only those enrollees whose coverage was maintained during the pandemic and who the state believes are no longer eligible, which may explain, in part, the higher disenrollment rate. Differences in who states are targeting with early renewals as well as differences in renewal policies and systems capacity likely explain some of the variation in disenrollment rates. Some states (such as Idaho and South Carolina) are initially targeting people early in the unwinding period that they think are no longer eligible or who did not respond to renewal requests during the pandemic, but other states are conducting renewals based on an individual’s renewal date. Additionally, some states have adopted several policies that promote continued coverage among those who remain eligible and have automated eligibility systems that can more easily and accurately process renewals while other states have adopted fewer of these policies and have more manually-driven systems.

(Note: disenrollment rate calculations do not include renewals that are still pending. If these pending renewals, which are large in many states, were included, the disenrollment rates would be lower. For example, South Carolina’s disenrollment rate would drop from 74% to 46% if pending renewals in the state were included in the calculation. More detailed information on completed and pending renewals for states is available here.)

• Across all states with available data, 75% of all people disenrolled had their coverage terminated for procedural reasons. There is also wide variation in rates of procedural disenrollments across states reporting this breakout, ranging from 99% in New Mexico to 30% in Iowa. Procedural disenrollments are cases where people are disenrolled because they did not complete the renewal process and can occur when the state has outdated contact information or because the enrollee does not understand or otherwise does not complete renewal packets within a specific timeframe. High procedural disenrollment rates are concerning because many people who are disenrolled for these paperwork reasons may still be eligible for Medicaid coverage.

(Note: procedural disenrollment rates are calculated using total disenrollments as the denominator. The number of people whose coverage was renewed as well as the number of pending renewals are not included in these calculations. Including these counts would lower the procedural disenrollment rates. For example, Nevada’s procedural disenrollment rate would drop from 70% to 41% if these counts were included in the calculation. More detailed information on completed and pending renewals for states is available here.)

• Although data are limited, children accounted for roughly one-third (33%) of Medicaid disenrollments in six states reporting age breakouts. As of July 14, 2023, at least 236,000 children had been disenrolled out of 712,000 total disenrollments in the six states. The share of children disenrolled ranged from 37% in Arkansas to 20% in Washington.

Background on the Unwinding of the Medicaid Continuous Enrollment Provision

The Medicaid continuous enrollment provision, which had halted Medicaid disenrollments since March 2020, ended on March 31, 2023. Primarily due to the continuous enrollment provision, 93 million people were enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP in March 2023, the month before the unwinding period began, an increase of over 22 million from February 2020. As states unwind the continuous enrollment provision over the following 12 months, they will redetermine eligibility for all Medicaid enrollees and will disenroll those who are no longer eligible or who may remain eligible but are unable to complete the renewal process. Millions of people are expected to lose Medicaid coverage during this unwinding period.

States will begin disenrolling people from Medicaid in different months, with some states resuming disenrollments in April, others in May or June, and even July or later for some states. The figure below shows the month in which disenrollments are expected to begin in each state.

For questions about this tracker, please contact [email protected]