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Xavier Becerra, the health and human services secretary, suggested that states were doing far too little to make sure that children were not unfairly denied federal insurance.
The Biden administration on Monday warned the governors of nine states of unusually high Medicaid coverage losses among children, suggesting that officials were failing to protect young, low-income Americans while winnowing the program’s rolls.
Xavier Becerra, the health and human services secretary, wrote letters to the leaders of the states that had the highest number or percentage of Medicaid coverage losses among children through September, after a federal policy that required states to keep people in the program lapsed.
The appeals to state leaders doubled as a call to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The letter recipients included Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas. All three are Republicans who lead states that have not expanded Medicaid and where hundreds of thousands of children have lost coverage this year.
The nine states accounted for roughly 60 percent of the decline in enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, through September, federal health officials said.