Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Medicaid & CHIP: June 2016 Monthly Applications, Eligibility Determinations and Enrollment Report August 25, 2016
CMS recently reported on Medicaid enrollment growth from the third quarter of 2013 compared to June 2016 (in other words the first 2 and ½ years of the ACA’s Medicaid expansion). California’s Medi-Cal enrollment growth was 54.6%. The average for all states adopting the Medicaid expansion was 35.6%.
The Medicaid expansion states with larger growth than California were Colorado (73%), Kentucky (102%), Montana (59%), Nevada (83%), New Mexico (65%), Oregon (65%), Washington (59%) and West Virginia (62%).
Among states, which did not accept the federal offer of 100% federal financial participation for the new eligibility category, Medicaid enrollment grew by 12% due to the required improvements in application processing. In Texas with one of the nation’s highest percent uninsured, Medicaid enrollment grew by 6% while Oklahoma with a very high percent uninsured, Medicaid enrollment fell by 1%. The non-expansion states with high Medicaid enrollment growth were Idaho (11%), North Carolina (25%), and Tennessee (30%).
Republican Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump proposes to repeal the Medicaid expansions and application processing improvements and make the program a block grant to the states. The repeal of the ACA’s Medicaid improvements would cause 14.3 million Americans to lose their newly acquired coverage.
Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton proposes to extend the offer of 100% federal financial participation to the non-participating states for three more years. Assuming they match the average performance of the already participating states, an additional 5 million Americans and likely more would gain coverage in many of the poorest states with the highest percentages of uninsured.
Prepared by: Lucien Wulsin
Dated: September 20, 2016