Losing health coverage does not just affect one doctor visit. It often means people wait longer to get care, miss preventive care, get sicker before they seek help, and end up in more costly crisis care, including emergency room visits for non-emergency situations.
That matters for families, but it also matters for communities and for the long-term cost of care. When people lose coverage, problems that could have been treated early often become more serious and more expensive.
For many families, the problem is not that they do not qualify for help. The problem is that the system becomes harder to use.
A new report from the Urban Institute, shared by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, warns that new Medicaid work rules and six-month eligibility checks could cause millions of people to lose health coverage, including thousands here in Kansas.
What the Report Projects
The report says Medicaid expansion enrollment could drop by 4.9 million to 10.1 million people each month in 2028. Using population share as a rough estimate, that could mean:
- 42,800 to 88,200 Kansans losing coverage
- 2,564 to 5,284 people in Shawnee County losing coverage
That would be a 27% to 55% drop.
The report also says that six-month eligibility checks alone could reduce coverage by 2.0 to 3.1 million people. That would be about 17,500 to 27,100 Kansans and 1,046 to 1,621 people in Shawnee County using the same rough estimate.
Work requirements alone could reduce coverage by another 3.0 to 7.0 million people. That would be about 26,200 to 61,100 Kansans and 1,569 to 3,667 people in Shawnee County using the same rough estimate.
Even in the strongest setup, millions of people are still expected to lose coverage.
People with changing work hours, self-employment, caregiving duties, and health needs face some of the biggest risks.
What That Means
This matters because many people do not lose help because they do not need it. They lose help because the system gets harder to use.
Forms can be confusing. Deadlines can be missed. Offices may be hard to reach. Work hours can change. Transportation can be limited. Internet access can be spotty. Families can be asked to prove the same thing again and again.
The report also says these new rules do not come with new help for barriers like transportation, unstable housing, or limited job access.
That means many families will be asked to do more without getting the extra support they need.
Why This Matters to SENT
This connects closely to SENT’s work with mRelief to help Kansans keep their SNAP benefits. At SENT, we know a simple truth: availability does not always lead to access, and need does not always lead to support.
That is why SENT’s work matters.
Through the Family Resource Center, community liaisons, Neighbor Advocates, Community Health Workers, transportation support, and pantry-to-services pathways, SENT helps close the gap between qualifying for help and actually keeping that help.
The mRelief partnership is part of that work. It helps families hold on to food support at a time when benefit systems are getting harder to navigate. […]
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