The millions losing healthcare coverage

By Albert DeSimone

A recent article in a local newspaper provides insights into the Medicaid losses subsequent to the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB). 

The focus of the article is on the number of people (16 million) whom he claims are subject to losing healthcare benefits now that the OBBB has passed. To be sure, this number has been perpetuated throughout legacy news outlets and social media. 

Before addressing those healthcare losses, I will mention a similar loss of healthcare coverage that appears to have gone relatively unnoticed. Due to COVID Unwinding (states returning to regular operations after COVID-19), millions of Medicaid enrollees were affected. There was a loss of 16 million enrollees from March 2023 (94 million) to March 2025 (78 million). Source: KFF. 

This loss is similar and the outrage less. I find that very interesting, regardless of the cause. 

Back to the 16 million in the article. 

Claim: 8 million will lose coverage due to expiring tax credits and new enrollment requirements. 

To be clear, the tax credits that are expiring are the COVID-era enhanced tax credits. These should have already expired, but were extended by the Inflation Reduction Act. The impact is  estimated at 4.2 million losses due to increased premiums.  

The other projected 3.8 million losses are due to increased reporting and verification requirements, assumed to be so tedious or demanding that people will not comply and lose coverage. In addition, new rules on gender-affirming care, abortion providers, immigrant eligibility, and nursing home care will likely contribute to this number. 

Claim: 8 million people will lose coverage due to work requirements and eligibility checks. We all certainly hope that doesn’t happen; however, if the Georgia Pathways to Coverage process is followed, I’m not very hopeful.

The Georgia Pathways to Coverage was a pilot program for a national work requirements program.

From reports I’ve seen, the enrollment process is a nightmare—website crashes, no responses to emails, and other administrative issues. Only 5 thousand people enrolled in the first year. The target goal was 25 thousand. 

We can also hope that if these issues cause a massive number of people to lose healthcare, the appropriate corrections will be made by the governing bureaucracy. 

Albert DeSimone resides in Bishop