During the 2019 policy year, over 72.9 million Americans enrolled in their state Medicaid programs. This was down 1.1 million (2%) from 2018, which had 74 million individuals apply for the federal and state health insurance program. Medicaid is designed to be a low-cost insurance plan for low-income individuals who cannot afford individual health insurance or who do not receive health insurance through an employer.

Medicaid enrollment changes

Enrollment for Medicaid occurs every year during the open enrollment period. This is when you can visit the healthcare.gov website to apply and find out if you are eligible for the health insurance program. If you are already enrolled in Medicaid, you still need to reapply during the open enrollment period.

Medicaid covers people with low-incomes, disabilities or drug addictions. The federally funded program provided opioid addiction help to 4 in 10 nonelderly adults. This allowed individuals to get increased access to treatment centers and intervention courses.

Virginia saw the largest jump in Medicaid enrollment with a year-over-year increase of over 25%. The main driving factor in this increase is that Virginia expanded Medicaid enrollment beginning January 1, 2019. This allowed many individuals who had previously been in the coverage gap to get comprehensive medical insurance.

Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

The Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is an insurance program that provides low-cost health care to children in families whose household income is too high to qualify for Medicaid but not high enough to purchase private health insurance. Furthermore, CHIP is available for pregnant women who have a household income up to 185% of the federal poverty level.

Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollment increased over 2% for the 2019 policy year. The largest change in enrollment can be seen in Tennessee, which saw a year-over-year drop of 28% in total CHIP enrollment. This drop in enrollment was primarily due to an enrollment system change in Tennessee that ended up removing coverage for over 21,000 children under 18 years old.

Medicaid expansion

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), state Medicaid programs are allowed to expand their program's eligibility requirements to cover more low-income individuals. The provision of the ACA expands the income threshold to anyone with an income of less than 138% of the federal poverty level. As of 2019, 33 states have passed legislation that expands Medicaid. In the table below are the states that have and have not passed Medicaid expansion. For the beginning of 2019, Virginia and Maine expanded Medicaid coverage.