But I want At first glance, Isabella Quintana looks like so many toddlers. But what you can't see are for health challenges. What's it

like to have a 16 month old daughter with no health insurance coverage and a heart murmur?

So a lot of things all the time. You know? And it's hard for us because we are, like, always thinking when she's going to get sick. You know?

Her father, Gorman, says Isabella should be covered by Medicaid, the government program ensuring low income and disabled Americans. But over the summer, she lost coverage even while her brother kept his due to what her parents believe is a paperwork issue. They say since then, a bronchitis follow-up appointment cost around $1100 out of pocket, a big chunk of the roughly 35,000 the Colorado family makes a year, which is why another time, the family tried to wait out a fever, hoping Isabella got better at home. She's far from alone. After the COVID public health emergency, the federal government required states to reevaluate every Medicaid recipient's eligibility.

The process called unwinding caused more than 25,000,000 people to lose Medicaid coverage. The majority for procedural reasons. As of August, more than 5,000,000 fewer children were enrolled. And overall, it's not clear how many Americans who lost coverage were actually still eligible.

So in August, you started trying to get it restored. And here we are in December.

Yeah. I didn't get nothing.

The exodus created a paperwork backlog. And while unwinding largely ended in the spring, kids like Isabella appear to still be facing the consequences.

It shouldn't take 4 months for that connect to happen.

It shouldn't. And if that happens, there's something wrong. Something has fallen through the cracks.

Kim Bimsteffer oversees Medicaid in Colorado. All

are working. Where

unwinding sent safety net enrollment plummeting more than 30%. Over 550,000 people lost health insurance through the state's safety net programs. Nearly a 150,000 of them, children.

Some individuals will fall through the cracks, and we are working really hard and have been working really hard to find them and get them reconnected.

A third of Coloradans who lost Medicaid got their coverage restored, but Bimstefer says the state's uninsured rate has gone up.

That's a problem. Yeah. I mean, people are not finding private health insurance.

Yes. It is an absolute problem. Every American should have health insurance. Right?

Bimstefer says the state created a new way to escalate reviews and is expanding automation to make a dent in the backlog. But change is not coming fast enough. Every child pediatrics says the number of its uninsured patients is climbing, and even short gaps in coverage can be devastating, especially for children.

A lot of them are not getting their preventative care, their immunizations. They're falling behind on things like developmental screenings. We could miss an opportunity to intervene early and get kids speech therapy, occupational therapy, what they need to help achieve those milestones, and it really does change their developmental trajectory longer term. So it's a huge deal.

A huge deal for kids like Isabella whose futures hang in the balance.

It's tough because you want them to be healthier right away. You know? You don't wanna wait until something else happen.

Jesse Kirsch, NBC News, Denver. Thanks for watching. Stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media.