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Democrats condemn Texas plan to terminate Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands of people

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The entire Texas Democratic delegation in the U.S. House asked the Biden administration to stop what they called a catastrophic loss of Medicaid coverage in the state. 

During the pandemic, Congress required states to maintain Medicaid coverage throughout the duration of the public health emergency.

But since the emergency was ended four months ago, nearly 600,000 Texans have seen their health coverage terminated.

Nearly 100,000 Texans were later found to have been erroneously kicked off of Medicaid due to system failures, and the State has begun reinstating coverage. 

The entire Texas Democratic delegation urged federal government intervention before the state sends notices to a third cohort of beneficiaries next month that they will lose their health benefits too.

"These disruptions and coverage gaps risk patients’ health and financial stability," read the letter from the delegation led by Congressmen Joaquin Castro, Greg Casar, and Lloyd Doggett. "We urge CMS to investigate and publish related information concerning the causes of these errors, all corrective actions taken and still pending that are necessary to prevent such disastrous errors from reoccurring, and data concerning the timeline for reinstatement of coverage for all affected beneficiaries.”

The delegation called this situation preventable and said time is of the essence given "Texas' aggressive redetermination timeline."

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not respond to TPR's request for comment.

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