An estimated 15-18 million Americans could lose their health coverage in 2023 after three years of COVID-19 public health emergency, the shield of continuous coverage offered by Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) comes to an end.
“America is facing a health crisis and it isn’t made up of bacteria or viruses—instead, it’s an impending medical insurance meltdown.
There is an expectation that as of January 11th, 2023, an estimated 15 million Americans will begin to lose health coverage.
The reason is that after three years of a COVID-19 public health emergency, the shield of continuous coverage offered by Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) will end.
Once the state of emergency expires, regular income requirements and restrictions will apply. This will disqualify millions who’ve benefited from congressional legislation passed in 2020 preventing disenrollment for the duration of the COVID pandemic.
Health care administrators are already bracing for the fallout as the end looms large.
Even with an extension, it’s only delaying the inevitable, according to industry insiders. An avalanche of newly uninsured Americans will still tumble into the national health care system.
An estimated 15 million adults and children will be unenrolled once the health emergency ends, according to an analysis from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning Evaluation. Within that group, 8.2 million will no longer be eligible for Medicaid. Another 5.3 million children also won’t qualify for CHIP.
Barely a third of those in line to be ejected into the insurance marketplace will qualify for tax credits or other programs. That will leave millions in limbo, scrambling to find affordable insurance.
With such a high volume of newly uninsured patients, some analysts predict cost increases for doctor visits, especially in the emergency room.
Others say it will contribute to America’s spiraling mental health crisis, which currently affects more than 50 million people.
‘We talk about this at work a lot. From the human perspective, it’s not just CHIP and Medicaid, it’s also disability plans. That’s what we’re most worried about, disability and seniors’, Amanda Jones told The Epoch Times.
Jones is a senior health professional who has worked with U.S. government health-care programs for 14 years. She says it won’t be as simple as just rolling back into the program once the state of emergency expires.
Because for many using subsidized programs, other coverage is just too expensive. Those who don’t qualify for alternative, affordable care plans will likely just go without, according to Jones.
Affordable private coverage options can also vary drastically from state to state”. -Autumn Spredemann, Epoch Times
Cue the Americans who like to trumpet the wonders of European-style nationalized healthcare programs.
While it’s true that Americans have shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, the reasons why have nothing to do with inferior healthcare or substandard hospitals. In fact, American hospitals are of far higher quality than most medical centers across Europe.
Europeans live longer despite their terrible healthcare systems because their healthy lifestyle choices help to avoid needing medical intervention in the first place.
For one, they don’t give their children nearly as many vaccines before the time they can walk. They exercise portion control to a much greater extent. Their “food” isn’t made out of genetically modified plastic for the most part. And they tend to work fewer hours, although smoking is more widespread throughout Europe than in the United States.
These factors need to be kept in mind whenever someone is spouting off about the societal benefits of nationalized health care.