Millions of children could lose Medicaid coverage once the public health emergency ends

The number of kids covered by Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program has soared to a record 40 million during the pandemic. However, at least 6.7 million children are at risk of losing that coverage and going uninsured for a period once the emergency expires, according to a new analysis.

However, at least 6.7 million children are at risk of losing that coverage and going uninsured for a period once the emergency expires, according to a new analysis released Thursday by the Georgetown Center for Children and Families. That could happen in July -- the Department of Health and Human Services has promised to provide states with 60-days notice.

States will then resume checking families' eligibility for Medicaid, including making sure parents' incomes have not risen above the program's thresholds. That process has been on hold since March 2020, when lawmakers passed a coronavirus relief package that boosted states' federal Medicaid match rates by 6.2 percentage points during the public health emergency. In exchange for that additional aid, states could not remove anyone involuntarily from coverage.