Millions of people who gained health care coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic through Medicaid are now losing it but not for the reason one might think.

According to a recent Associated Press story on the matter, 80% of the people being dropped from the Medicaid rolls are losing coverage because of procedural issues.

Procedural issues is government speak for failure to return forms or problems filling them out in the first place.

AP reported that Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra sent a letter Friday to all governors encouraging them to bolster efforts to retain people on Medicaid.

He particularly encouraged them to use electronic information from other federal programs, such as food stamps, to automatically confirm people’s eligibility for Medicaid. That would avert the need to mail and return documents.

“I am deeply concerned about high rates of procedural terminations due to ‘red tape’ and other paperwork issues,” Becerra told governors.

In 18 states that began a post-pandemic review of their Medicaid rolls in April, health coverage was continued for about 1 million recipients and terminated for 715,000. Of those dropped, 4 in 5 were for procedural reasons, according to newly released data from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, noted AP.

Though the federal government hasn’t released data from the most recent reports, information gathered by The Associated Press and health care advocacy groups show that about 3.7 million people already have lost Medicaid coverage.

That includes about 500,000 in Texas, around 400,000 in Florida and 225,000 in California. Of those who lost coverage, 89% were for procedural reasons in California, 81% in Texas and 59% in Florida, according to AP’s data.

We like what government is doing closer to home. Michigan reported renewing more than 103,000 Medicaid recipients in June and removing just 12,000.

It told the federal government that the state opted to delay terminations for those who failed to respond to renewal requests while instead making additional outreach attempts. As a result, the state reported more than 100,000 people whose June eligibility cases remained incomplete, AP wrote.

We think Michigan has the right idea, that government should be a bit more proactive in determining Medicaid eligibility.

We can’t help but wonder if other states will follow suit.