Expanding Medicaid: State Data on Populations That Stand to Benefit
Update (7/16/2015): Alaska Governor Bill Walker announces he will use executive authority to expand Medicaid, leaving 19 states not expanding.
Nineteen states* have chosen not to extend Medicaid health coverage, leaving sizable populations without health insurance. If states do not expand their Medicaid program’s income eligibility thresholds to allow more people to qualify, these individuals and families remain too poor to pay for insurance on their own—yet do not qualify for the state’s current Medicaid program. This infographic shows the populations—uninsured adults, parents with dependent children, working but uninsured adults, and uninsured veterans and their spouses—that would benefit from extending Medicaid. (Read related blog.)
- Low-Wage Workers and Medicaid Expansion (Issue Briefs and Infographic Series)
- Momentum on Medicaid Expansion (Short Analysis)
- Expanding Medicaid: Better Health, Jobs, and Economic Activity for States (Short Analysis)
*Note: Wisconsin has declined federal funds to expand Medicaid. However, the state used its existing Medicaid program to partly close its coverage gap by raising eligibility levels to 100 percent of poverty, thus allowing more people to become eligible for health insurance (although it dropped health coverage for parents who had incomes above the poverty level).