At last count there are over 70,000 Arizona residents that are enrolled in AHCCCS (Medicaid) that do not qualify for such coverage under normal circumstances. But because the current federal administration keeps extending the Public Health Emergency (PHE) every 90 days these individuals cannot be disenrolled. The PHE expanded coverage to many that normally would not qualify for Medicaid based on their income. The PHE is scheduled to end in October, but all indications are that it will be extended once again until January of 2023… just past the midterm elections. Once the non-qualified AHCCCS enrollees are disenrolled they can then apply for an individual ACA Marketplace plan and likely receive a generous federal subsidy resulting in low to no monthly premium.
The benefit to the 70,000 enrolled in AHCCCS (but do not normally qualify for AHCCCS based on income) is that they may have greater access to care once enrolled in an ACA Marketplace plan. The benefit to the state of Arizona is that the state will no longer have to pay a portion of the cost to insure these non-qualified AHCCCS individuals that will be better served with their own ACA Arizona individual health insurance plan through the Marketplace.
The Federation of American Hospitals has said that now is not an appropriate time to end the PHE due to ongoing issues with COVID-19. They say that even though the public has moved on from COVID, hospitals around the country must deal with it every day, and they are not ready to go back to the way things were pre-pandemic.
Extending the PHE guarantees that Medicaid expansion remains in place along with telehealth services. Most importantly, extending the PHE another 90 days guarantees the extension of federally boosted payments to hospitals to care for COVID patients. Whether the boosted payments played a part in the Federation of American Hospitals decision to oppose ending the PHE is not known.