As Missouri Trims Its Medicaid Rolls, Families Say They've Been Kicked Off Unfairly

On Aug. 9, Holly Uchtman and her 7-year-old son Zyler headed to their weekly appointment at Mercy Hospital in Springfield. Zyler has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare, terminal disease that causes muscles to weaken and eventually stop working. For two years, Zyler had been receiving eteplirsen, gene therapy that helped his muscles keep their shape.

But that day, there was a surprise on the other side of their journey. The state had removed Zyler from Medicaid, which pays for his nearly $40,000-a-week treatment. They were turned away, and he missed his appointment.

Zyler was one of the 120,000 people, most of them children, who have been dropped from Missouri’s Medicaid rolls since the beginning of 2018, either because the state removed them or they didn’t re-enroll. State officials say the huge drop is because leadership is finally weeding out ineligible recipients after years of neglecting to double-check eligibility.

In recent months, eligible families across the state say they’ve been arriving at doctors’ appointments to learn their children have been unwittingly dropped from the program and are unable to receive the required medical care.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/missouri-trims-its-medicaid-rolls-families-say-theyve-been-kicked-unfairly