The Texas Tribune recently reported on the significant impact of Texas' rapid removal of millions from Medicaid, a move that primarily affected children. Senior Policy Analyst Erin O’Malley spoke to The Texas Tribune about the situation.

"For three years during the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government gave Texas and other states billions of dollars in exchange for their promise not to exacerbate the public health crisis by kicking people off Medicaid," the report noted. "When that agreement ended last year, Texas moved swiftly, kicking off more people faster than any other state."

Officials admitted to some errors after stripping Medicaid coverage from over 2 million people. Many believe they were wrongly removed and are now struggling to regain access to the state and federally funded health care program. This has contributed to a backlog of more than 200,000 applicants.

A review by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune examined numerous public and private records, including memos, emails, and legislative hearings. The findings indicated that these mistakes were preventable and had been foreshadowed by persistent warnings from federal entities, whistleblowers, and advocates.

Texas' aggressive approach contradicted federal guidelines from the outset. The decision had severe repercussions in a state that already insures a smaller percentage of its population through Medicaid compared to most others and is among the ten states that never expanded eligibility following the Affordable Care Act.

Erin O’Malley commented on the state's approach: "The difference in how Texas approached this compared to a lot of other states is and was very striking. It wanted everybody off, anybody extra off, even though we knew that meant that state systems would buckle under the pressure."