Native Americans want to avoid past Medicaid enrollment problems as work requirements loom

Jonnelle Wieder is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Like a lot of Native American people, she relied on Medicaid — for herself and daughter Oakleigh McDonald — before she lost coverage in 2023.(Tommy Martino for KFF Health News)

Wieder is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana and can access some health services free of charge through her tribe’s health clinics. But funding is limited, so, like a lot of Native American people, she relied on Medicaid for herself and Oakleigh.

Months before Oakleigh’s 1st birthday, the date when Wieder’s postpartum coverage would come to an end, Wieder completed and returned paperwork to enroll her daughter in Healthy Montana Kids, the state’s version of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. But her pa