Dear Secretary Becerra:
Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on the Washington Medicaid Transformation Project Amendment.
The undersigned organizations represent millions of individuals facing serious, acute and chronic health conditions. We have a unique perspective on what individuals and families need to prevent disease, cure illness and manage chronic health conditions. The diversity of our organizations and the populations we serve enable us to draw upon a wealth of knowledge and expertise that is an invaluable resource regarding any decisions affecting the Medicaid program and the people that it serves. We urge the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to make the best use of the recommendations, knowledge and experience our organizations offer here.
Our organizations are committed to ensuring that Washington’s Medicaid program provides quality and affordable healthcare coverage. We support the state’s proposal to expand multi-year continuous eligibility for young children and urge CMS to approve this amendment.
Our organizations support Washington’s proposed expansion of multi-year continuous coverage for young children in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Continuous eligibility promotes health equity and protects families with fluctuating incomes from gaps in coverage. The state has estimated that 11% of children under six experience gaps in Medicaid coverage in a given year. Washington has already adopted this policy in Medicaid and expects that an additional 16,000 children would receive continuous coverage as a result of expanding this policy to CHIP.
Research has shown that individuals with disruptions in coverage during a year are more likely to delay care, receive less preventive care, refill prescriptions less often, and have more emergency department visits. Gaps in Medicaid coverage have also been shown to increase hospitalizations and negative health outcomes for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions like respiratory diseases and heart disease. Furthermore, studies show that children of color are more likely to be affected by gaps in coverage that continuous eligibility would address, rendering it crucial for increasing equitable access to care. Overall, multi-year continuous eligibility would improve access to and continuity of care for children during the critical early years of life while promoting health equity.
This policy will also reduce churn within the program and its administrative burden on Medicaid offices. A recent report from KFF found that more than 40% of individuals who were disenrolled from Medicaid/CHIP eventually re-enrolled within a year. Continuous eligibility eases the administrative burden that these changes in enrollment status place on the program.
Our organizations support multi-year continuous eligibility for young children as a method to reduce negative health outcomes in Washington. We urge CMS to approve this amendment. Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments.