Recently released census numbers show a higher percentage of Ohioans were covered by private or public health insurance in 2022 than the year before.

But officials say those numbers are dropping this year after COVID-19 pandemic waivers for Medicaid enrollment ended.

According to recently released American Community Survey numbers, the percentage of Ohioans without any health insurance dropped from 6.5% in 2021 to 5.9% in 2022.

The percentage of Ohioans with private health insurance coverage increased from 67.6% in 2021 to 68.1% in 2022, according to the survey. And the percentage of those covered by public insurance such as Medicaid and Medicare ticked up from 38.6% to 38.8%.

Lisa Lawless, chief communications officer for the Ohio Department of Medicaid, said the reason the private and public percentages total more than 100% is that during the course of the year, some move from private to public insurance, which includes the Affordable Care Act, or vice versa.

In 2022, the number of Ohioans enrolled in Medicaid topped out at 3,665,421, according to figures from the state of Ohio. That was up 11% from the 3,308,090 enrolled in 2020.

But at the end of August 2023, the number was 3,384,042, almost back to 2020 levels.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, the federal government prohibited states from booting people off Medicaid even if they were no longer eligible.

But that ended in December 2022.

“We started doing determinations on the April renewal date,” Lawless said. Now the numbers of those enrolled in Medicaid, which includes children, are falling.

Peggy Lawson, of Amherst, in Lorain County, west of Cleveland, said she told she was going to be kicked off Medicaid this year because she and her husband earned $40 a week too much to be eligible.

Lawson, 59, is a home health aide and has been diagnosed with lung cancer. Her husband is on disability. She was told she’d be dropped on Aug. 31.

Lawson said she reduced her hours, and has now taken a leave of absence. She reapplied for Medicaid, and after an arduous process is covered again. She starts chemotherapy on Oct. 10.

“I was rushing around trying to get my health care needs met,” Lawson said.

Lawless said that while some parents may not be eligible for Medicaid coverage, their children still may be. “We’re spending time trying to educate them on that as well,” she said.

Also, Lawless said there are times when individuals are not eligible for Medicaid when they do seasonal work. They then come back and reapply after three to six months of working, she said.

Cathi Steele, executive director of the Mid-Ohio Workers Association, which advocates for low-income workers, said one of the problems is the difficulty people have with re-enrolling, with some waiting for hours to talk to representatives at the state.

People apply online to re-enroll but then call because there’s no way to follow-up online with the state, Steele said.

“We know someone who works there, they’ve been overwhelmed with people reapplying for Medicaid,” she said.

Steele said that a member of her organization works and applied for Medicaid eight months ago. The person almost was fired for waiting on the phone too long to check on the status of her application, which the state representative said couldn’t be found.

“From what we’ve seen with the rising cost of everything, people are working two, three jobs to survive. To apply for benefits is a burden,” she said.

In a statement, Kelly O’Reilly, CEO of the Ohio Association of Health Plans, said the number of uninsured in 2023 could return closer to pre-pandemic levels, mentioning the Ohio Department of Medicaid temporarily suspending eligibility determinations during the pandemic.

“In the meantime, Ohio’s health plans are working with employers and brokers to control costs and find ways to provide more options for health care coverage,” he said.

Charlotte Rudolph, the interim executive director of the Universal Health Care Action Network Ohio, a nonprofit working to influence health policy issues, said that without health coverage, some may not seek care. It’s important to enroll them in the federal health insurance marketplace, she said.

“They’re racking up medical bills they can’t afford to pay,” she said.

Rudolph said others may have lost Medicaid coverage because they’ve moved.

She said that people who don’t have coverage and are in the middle of cancer treatments or treatment for substance-use disorders puts their lives at risk.

“You have people who churn on and off. That’s unhealthy,” Rudolph said.

Michael Wilkos, senior vice president of community impact for the United Way of Central Ohio, studies demographic trends. In an email, he said that more people covered with health insurance provides many community benefits such as lower death rates, better health outcomes and improved productivity for workers and businesses.

“As central Ohio continues to grow and diversify keeping more people covered with insurance will help the region prosper,” WIlkos said.

“Like many regions across the country, there is more than a 20-year gap in life expectancy between wealthy areas and those with concentrated poverty,” he said. “The increase in health coverage, driven by in increase in those typically uninsured, helps to mitigate this disparity and many others.”

He also said that as housing costs grow relative to wages, any way a family can increase its income to pay for housing is a great thing.

“Having more people covered by health insurance can free up more income to stay stable in housing,” he said. “When workers are more productive and families are stable in their housing, we all win.”

mferench@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik