States are turning to the big health insurance companies to keep Medicaid enrollees insured once pandemic protections end

Photo of a man sitting on a couch next to a pair of cruntches (Credit: Dusan Stankovic—E+/Getty Images)

The federal COVID-19 pandemic protections that have largely prohibited states from dropping anyone from Medicaid since 2020 helped millions of low-income Americans retain health insurance coverage—even if they no longer qualified—and brought the U.S. uninsured rate to a record low.

It also led to a windfall for the health plans that states pay to oversee care of most Medicaid enrollees. These plans—many run by insurance titans including UnitedHealthcare, Centene, and Aetna—have seen their revenue surge by billions as their membership soared by millions.