How many medicaid recipients

Because of this flexibility, there is significant variation across state Medicaid programs. The Medicaid entitlement is based on two guarantees: first, all Americans who meet Medicaid eligibility requirements are guaranteed coverage, and second, states are guaranteed federal matching dollars without a cap for qualified services provided to eligible enrollees. Figure 2: The basic foundations of Medicaid are related to the entitlement and the federal-state partnership.

States could opt to provide coverage at income levels above cash assistance. Over time, Congress expanded federal minimum requirements and provided new coverage options for states especially for children, pregnant women, and people with disabilities. Following these policy changes, for the first time states conducted outreach campaigns and simplified enrollment procedures to enroll eligible children in both Medicaid and CHIP.

Expansions in Medicaid coverage of children marked the beginning of later reforms that recast Medicaid as an income-based health coverage program. Prior to the ACA, individuals had to be categorically eligible and meet income standards to qualify for Medicaid leaving most low-income adults without coverage options as income eligibility for parents was well below the federal poverty level in most states and federal law excluded adults without dependent children from the program no matter how poor.

The ACA changes effectively eliminated categorical eligibility and allowed adults without dependent children to be covered; however, as a result of a Supreme Court ruling, the ACA Medicaid expansion is effectively optional for states.

Under the ACA, all states were required to modernize and streamline Medicaid eligibility and enrollment processes. Expansions of Medicaid have resulted in historic reductions in the share of children without coverage and, in the states adopting the ACA Medicaid expansion, sharp declines in the share of adults without coverage. Many Medicaid adults are working, but few have access to employer coverage and prior to the ACA had no options for affordable coverage.

Figure 3: Medicaid has evolved over time to meet changing needs. In FY , Medicaid covered over 75 million low-income Americans. As of February , 37 states have adopted the Medicaid expansion. Data as of FY when fewer states had adopted the expansion show that States can opt to provide Medicaid for children with significant disabilities in higher-income families to fill gaps in private health insurance and limit out-of-pocket financial burden.

Medicaid also assists nearly 1 in 5 Medicare beneficiaries with their Medicare premiums and cost-sharing and provides many of them with benefits not covered by Medicare, especially long-term care Figure 4.

Figure 4: Medicaid plays a key role for selected populations. Medicaid covers a broad range of services to address the diverse needs of the populations it serves Figure 5.

In addition to covering the services required by federal Medicaid law, many states elect to cover optional services such as prescription drugs, physical therapy, eyeglasses, and dental care. Medicaid plays an important role in addressing the opioid epidemic and more broadly in connecting Medicaid beneficiaries to behavioral health services. EPSDT is especially important for children with disabilities because private insurance is often inadequate to meet their needs.

Unlike commercial health insurance and Medicare, Medicaid also covers long-term care including both nursing home care and many home and community-based long-term services and supports. While enrollment has increased for 15 consecutive months, the monthly increases appear to be slowing compared to April through August , when monthly increases were the largest.

However, continued economic uncertainty and fallout from the more transmissible Delta variant could impact future Medicaid enrollment trends. However, the data presented in this brief will differ from those presented in monthly Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Snapshots published by CMS, which use exclusively preliminary enrollment reports for all months.

Following the implementation of the ACA Medicaid expansion to low-income adults in , there were large increases in Medicaid and CHIP enrollment across states that followed steady growth in coverage of children over the past decade. These increases reflected enrollment among newly eligible adults in states that implemented the expansion as well as enrollment among previously eligible adults and children due to enhanced outreach and enrollment efforts and updated enrollment procedures tied to the ACA.

Statistics on the topic. Overview U. Total Medicaid enrollment Total Medicaid expenditure Medicaid spending as a percent of total U. Medicaid's medical assistance outlays in the U. Medicaid long-term care services expenditures by type of service CHIP enrollment number Provider types with highest number of convictions for fraud under Medicaid Civil recoveries paid from fraud and abuse cases under Medicaid Projected total Medicaid enrollment More interesting topics Related topics.

Hospitals in the U. Data from — indicate that Medicaid enrollment has increased again following the onset of the COVID pandemic in part due to the requirement that states provide continuous coverage as a condition of increased federal funding during the federal public health emergency; this trend is expected to continue CMS , Frenier et al.

For more information, see Changes in coverage and access. This represents a States that expanded Medicaid to cover the new adult group showed the largest growth in enrollment. Between July and September and March As of March Medicaid enrollment has grown regardless of expansion status in most states following implementation of the ACA. This is likely due to the so-called welcome-mat effect in which enrollment increases among individuals who were previously eligible for coverage but not enrolled.