“No one can be an expert in this.”
Megan Erskine is CEO of nonprofit Catherine’s Health Center.
“I’ve been studying this for six months and I’m still a little confused.”
Erskine is a representative with the West Michigan Medicaid Task Force, a coalition of community and healthcare leaders assisting residents, immigrants, and non-citizens maneuver state and federal Medicaid changes.
“We know that most people on Medicaid are already working or they are in school or they qualify for a disability or an illness, so this is just introducing a lot of admin barriers and red tape that will make it harder for people to stay insured, so it’s very important that the public knows what’s coming us so that they’re able to get their paperwork in time.”
Some changes took affect October 1st with more to come January 1st. Task force representative Dr. Nirali Bora said it’s important for recipients to get familiar with work requirement changes and the impact of six-month renewals.
“These changes will impact everyone, especially certain folks in our community, and the more that we can do to help people enroll for Medicaid and keep up with the work requirements and keep up with the paperwork needed to keep their insurance, then we can help keep our communities healthy or prevent people from losing access to important things they need for their health.”
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services shares that nearly 750,000 Michiganders are covered by Medicaid’s Healthy Michigan Plan.
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