How Should Children's Medicaid Eligibility Be Monitored?

Abstract

Medicaid provides health insurance for nearly 4 in 10 children in the United States, but this coverage can be unstable as a result of annual eligibility redetermination requirements. After the continuous Medicaid coverage mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic ended in March 2023, states were required for the first time to publicly report standardized metrics on terminations and renewals resulting from eligibility redeterminations. Our understanding of redeterminations and their contribution to coverage gaps had been constrained by data limitations, but states' reporting practices offered researchers and policymakers key insights into these processes and associated coverage outcomes. This article canvasses some of those insights and suggests how federal reporting requirements could be amended to offer actionable insights into redetermination processes.