The pandemic-protected Medicaid coverage has expired, posing a threat to millions of low-income individuals who currently receive free health insurance.

A regulation that prevented individuals from losing their Medicaid coverage during the pandemic has expired, endangering the health insurance coverage of millions of people. Medicaid offers low-income individuals free health insurance. Medicaid beneficiaries typically have to renew their coverage annually; if they are no longer eligible, they forfeit their coverage. However, in 2020, a rule was established by MPs that maintained people's automatic enrollment in the government program, even in cases where they ceased to meet eligibility conditions.

Up to 15 million people could lose their health insurance as a result of this protection vanishing, according to a projection from the nonprofit research group Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). According to KFF, there are presently 95 million Americans registered for Medicaid and CHIP, which offer children affordable coverage.

According to Jennifer Tolbert, associate director of KFF's program on Medicaid and the uninsured, even a tiny interruption in coverage can have disastrous consequences. Some people might not have access to care for long-term mental or physical health issues.

According to Carrie Fry, a health policy specialist at Nashville, Tennessee's Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, the groups most likely to be impacted by the change are kids, young adults, Black, and Hispanic individuals.