More than 5 million children have lost Medicaid coverage since states began the process of unwinding the pandemic continuous coverage protection. And recently released data from the National Health Insurance Survey (NHIS) for the first quarter of 2024 adds to our concerns that children are losing access to the health care they need to succeed. NHIS shows that uninsurance among children increased by a full percentage point to 5.2% — that amounts to 800,000 children. As my colleague Joan Alker tweeted , NHIS data in the first quarter of a given year generally reflects the highest coverage rates of the year.

If historical enrollment trends hold, we can sadly anticipate that many, if not most, children who lost Medicaid have become uninsured but remain eligible. In fact, ASPE researchers estimate that 3 of every 4 children who are disenrolled from Medicaid due to paperwork or other administrative barriers remain eligible. So, it’s critical for states to build on the momentum of communications and community partner engagement established during the unwinding to reconnect eligible children and families with health insurance.

Back-to-school season is a crucial time to conduct Medicaid/CHIP outreach efforts and has proven to be very effective over the years – and for good reason. Health coverage helps families ensure their children’s immunizations are up to date and they have what they need to show up to school ready learn. It allows student athletes to get the updated annual physicals needed to participate in school sports and students with special needs to receive the treatment and supportive services they need to start a new school year. Medicaid plays a vital role for all of these students but can only help them if they are enrolled.

That’s why we need all hands on deck reaching out to families whose children are eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP. This is the time of year when parents are focused on getting their children ready to return to school, so reminding them to add health insurance to their checklist and providing details on Medicaid and CHIP can encourage them to apply or re-apply. This year it will be important to include messages that motivate those who lost coverage for procedural reasons to check again. Messages like, “Lost coverage? Your child may still be eligible,” can help grab the attention of families who lost Medicaid, but whose kids are likely still eligible.

CCF’s communication partner, GMMB, has created a back-to-school toolkit in both English and Spanish and is free for anyone to use. The toolkit includes social graphics, short videos, flyers, website copy, message scripts, and sample newsletter or email language, some of which can be customized to include state-specific information.

A handful of states also post their own back-to-school outreach resources for partners, which can be found on CCF’s state outreach scan. The federal “Connecting Kids to Coverage” campaign has published additional back-to-school outreach resources here.

Using these resources to reach families shouldn’t be left to the state alone because not every state has the capacity to take action as they wind down the unwinding and gear up for a number of eligibility and enrollment regulatory changes. Health care providers, school leaders, social service agencies, and advocacy organizations should push these messages out to their partners and families directly. Let’s not be caught off guard next year when the full impact of the loss of Medicaid results in an increase in the number of children without health insurance and access to care when we can do something now!