Thanks to Kay Tillow for sending us this.
Millions will lose federal health coverage when the pandemic officially ends — and contractors are poised to cash in.
Editor’s note: This story is being co-published with Sick Note, Libby Watson’s newsletter about America’s nightmarish health care system. Daily Poster supporters can subscribe to Sick Note for 15 percent off by clicking here.
Since the start of the pandemic, Medicaid, the federal and state program to provide health insurance to low income Americans, has been far more generous than in the past. Enrollment is higher than ever, at 77.8 million.
This isn’t because of some nationwide change of heart in state governments; it’s because states were paid to stop cutting people from their Medicaid rolls. Under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the first coronavirus relief bill passed in March 2020, states received a 6.2 percent boost in federal Medicaid funding in exchange for halting disenrollments.