MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Two key dates will determine how Vermont\u2019s roughly 176,000 Medicaid recipients access coverage in the coming months, as federal changes to the program take effect.<\/p>\n
After Congress passed HR1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, in July 2025, federal changes to Medicaid were set in stone.<\/p>\n
\u201cMedicaid is a complicated program, and these are some of the biggest sweeping changes to the program in its history,\u201d said Leslie Wisdom, deputy commissioner of the Department of Vermont Health Access.<\/p>\n
Vermont agencies want Medicaid recipients ready. Here\u2019s what to know.<\/p>\n
On Oct. 1, some immigrants who currently qualify for Medicaid will lose that coverage. Wisdom said one group is particularly at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the most impacted group would be the refugees and asylees losing coverage,\u201d Wisdom said.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 1, most adults must prove they\u2019re working, volunteering, in school, or doing community service to get or keep Medicaid. DVHA will collect data to help verify who meets the requirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to make this as seamless as possible and only come to the individual when we have to request additional documentation,\u201d Wisdom said.<\/p>\n
The enrollment window for 2027 plans is shrinking to Nov. 1 through Dec. 15. Medicaid recipients must now renew every six months, not every year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a stable way for folks to get information, but this, it\u2019s even more important now with these big changes,\u201d Wisdom said.<\/p>\n
If you are a Medicaid recipient, DVHA has been trying to reach you to make sure you\u2019re prepared.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s really important to keep your contact information up to date with us so that we know how to reach you. We don\u2019t want anyone\u2019s coverage to lapse, and then, again, please call us if you have any questions or you think you might be subject to these new requirements,\u201d Wisdom said.<\/p>\n
DVHA isn\u2019t your only resource. Vermont Legal Aid\u2019s health advocates are tracking these changes, too, and are ready to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is scary for a lot of Vermont families and I think the main message we want to give is we are going to work with families to help make sure people can maintain coverage and make sure people don\u2019t freak out unnecessarily, there\u2019s many many exemptions to these rules,\u201d said Mike Fisher, chief health care advocate for Vermont Legal Aid.<\/p>\n
If you do lose coverage, it isn\u2019t final.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course every Medicaid decision is appealable… if anybody listening to this feels like they\u2019ve, you know, received a decision that doesn\u2019t make sense to them, that they think is wrong, they are certainly welcome to call us and get some support,\u201d Fisher said.<\/p>\n
There are exemptions to the work requirement, including for pregnant individuals and those with a registered disability, among several others.<\/p>\n
The Department of Vermont Health Access<\/a> and Vermont Legal Aid\u2019s health care advocates<\/a> both offer resources with more details. DVHA also built a new online screening questionnaire that will show recipients where their coverage stands.<\/a><\/p>\n Copyright 2026 WCAX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Two key dates will determine how Vermont\u2019s roughly 176,000 Medicaid recipients access coverage in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1022434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[13986,210,1141,1142,89576,3170,50,277,67,132,68,2742,41707,47139],"class_list":["post-1022433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-low-income","tag-medicaid","tag-news","tag-trump","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vermont","tag-vt","tag-wcax"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117154291790304139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1022434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}