Tri-Caucus Chairs Applaud HHS’ Swift Action Reinstating Coverage for Half a Million Children and Adults

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that half a million children and families had regained their Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP) coverage after losing it this year. This follows an August 30 call to action issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) about a potential state systems issue whereby children and other enrollees were being improperly disenrolled, even when the state had information indicating the person remained eligible.

In March, the Chairs of the Congressional Tri-Caucus, including Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Chair Rep. Judy Chu (CA-28), Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chair Rep. Steven Horsford (NV-04), and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Rep. Nanette Barragán (CA-44), publicly led more than 60 of their Tri-Caucus colleagues in a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to preserve Medicaid coverage and protect access to healthcare during Medicaid “unwinding.”

Today, the Tri-Caucus Chairs released the following joint statement:

“Millions of low-income adults and children—disproportionally people of color—rely on Medicaid and CHIP to see a doctor and obtain quality health care coverage. Therefore, we are encouraged and deeply grateful that Secretary Becerra heeded our calls this year to use his authority and the tools available to HHS to preserve essential coverage for families when states and territories started ‘unwinding’ the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement. Secretary Becerra and Administrator Brooks-LaSure’s quick action to restore Medicaid for half a million wrongfully terminated families and pause future disenrollments of eligible individuals who lost their coverage just because of red tape is an important step to addresses a major civil rights disaster and will prevent future coverage loss for thousands of families. We look forward to continuing our work with the Biden-Harris Administration to hold states accountable for inappropriately disenrolling people and improve health coverage, equity, and affordability for all.”