Since the end of COVID-related healthcare protections, public health coverage in New Jersey has decreased by nearly 500,000.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), enrolment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in New Jersey fell by 486,135, dropping from over 2.2 million to under 1.8 million between March 2023 and October 2024.
Why This Matters?
Although New Jersey’s decline isn’t as steep as in states like Florida and Texas, the 22 percent drop is higher than the national average of 16 percent.
This raises questions about why so many residents lost coverage after pandemic-era protections ended. New Jersey’s disenrollment rate of 39 percent is above the national average of 31 percent.
Experts are concerned because studies suggest that many people lost coverage not due to ineligibility but because of confusion about the post-COVID changes, poor state communication, and procedural issues that made it difficult for people to renew their coverage.
Understanding the Coverage Drop
This decline in healthcare coverage is linked to a national process called “disenrollment” or “unwinding,” which began after the COVID-19 national health emergency ended.
In early 2020, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act introduced a rule that provided “continuous enrolment” for Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries.
This meant states could not check eligibility or remove coverage during the pandemic.
The pause on eligibility checks continued until March 2023, leading to a rise of 13 million people in public healthcare across the U.S.
When continuous enrolment ended, KFF found that many people were unsure how the changes would impact them.
Delays, administrative errors, and other issues also prevented many from completing their renewals, leading to unexpected coverage loss.
How Did New Jersey Respond?
New Jersey took steps to help its residents understand the process and extended the special enrollment period for those who lost coverage. This helped ease the transition to the health insurance marketplace.
However, unlike most states that tried to continue the coverage expansion seen during the pandemic through auto-renewal initiatives, New Jersey struggled.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported in April 2024 that New Jersey was one of just four states with an ex parte (automatic renewal) rate below 20 percent.
The Bigger Picture
By October 2024, the number of people covered by Medicaid and CHIP in New Jersey was slightly above pre-pandemic levels, with a 3 percent increase compared to February 2020.
However, this is still much lower than the national average increase of 11 percent.
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Public Reaction
Laura Waddell from New Jersey Citizen Action expressed concern about the high number of terminations due to procedural issues, telling the New Jersey Monitor in late 2023, “It’s bad enough people are being terminated, but now, for people to be terminated for processing reasons, it’s just hard to see.”
What to Expect Next?
According to KFF, the unwinding process is mostly complete, and no further updates on Medicaid and CHIP disenrollments are expected.
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