“In early August, Elizabeth Petersen was home-schooling her children in the kitchen of their northern Idaho home when she got a call from Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, where her 4-year-old son, Paul, was set to have surgery a few weeks later…

Families like the Petersens are wrestling with administrative burdens that are one reason more than 1 million children across the country are no longer covered by Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, two government-run programs for low-income children. It is the first enrollment decline in a decade…

Idaho’s changed requirements have ensnared in red tape many recipients who have no income or are self-employed. They have also pulled in some residents who receive Katie Beckett coverage, a type of Medicaid for families that have special-needs children but that have too high an income to qualify for traditional Medicaid. Parents were accustomed to reevaluating their child’s diagnosis every three years to keep Katie Beckett coverage, but their annual financial information was usually reviewed by the state internally…”