Return To Sender? Just One Missed Letter Can Be Enough To End Medicaid Benefits

Colorado estimates that about 15% of the 12 million letters it sends to beneficiaries of public assistance programs each year are returned unopened, left to pile up in county offices like this one in Colorado Springs. That amounts to about 1.8 million pieces of undelivered mail each year statewide.

Colorado, like a number of states, is struggling with huge piles of returned mail linked to public aid programs such as Medicaid or food stamps. But is dropping people from such assistance the answer?

(Image credit: Markian Hawryluk/KHN)