MASSHEALTH ENDED a year-long campaign to reassess eligibility for every single member with about 363,000 fewer people enrolled, officials announced Thursday, although the number of people on the public insurance program is up by more than 280,000 since pre-COVID.
The state’s combined Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program had nearly 2.04 million members at the end of May, according to new data. That’s about 15 percent fewer than when Massachusetts set out in spring 2023 on a gargantuan, federally mandated campaign to decide who qualifies for the subsidized insurance coverage for the first time since the pandemic.
One third of Bay Staters who lost MassHealth were confirmed to be no longer eligible. The remainder were disenrolled because the state was not able to collect enough information to reach a conclusion about their status, though officials said many individuals in that category appeared to have income too high to qualify for MassHealth.
About 133,000 people, a bit more than a third of those removed from MassHealth, signed up for an insurance plan available through the Massachusetts Health Connector.
Officials estimated at the outset of the campaign that redetermination would decrease the rolls by 300,000 to 400,000 members, and the final membership change fell within that range. However, total enrollment remains higher than before COVID-19 hit. Before the pandemic, the system had a baseline enrollment of about 1.75 million members.
All MassHealth members will face an annual eligibility review moving forward.
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