CMS says 9.7 Million Americans were added to Medicaid rolls in 2020

Medicaid enrollment rose sharply during the coronavirus pandemic, with nearly 10 million Americans joining the public health coverage program for the poor through January, a government report released Monday shows.

Eighty million people—more than ever before in the program’s history—now carry Medicaid coverage, for which states and the federal government share the cost. The new figures demonstrate the program’s increasingly important role not just as a safety net, but as a pillar of American health coverage, with fully a quarter of the population covered under it.

The Affordable Care Act transformed Medicaid from a targeted health care benefit meant to help certain groups of people — expectant mothers, for example, and those with disabilities — to a much wider program that provides largely free coverage to most people below a certain income threshold. The exceptions are the 12 states that have resisted expanding Medicaid under the health law to cover all adults with income up to 138% of the poverty level, which would be $17,774 for an individual this year.

Adult enrollment in Medicaid grew twice as quickly as child enrollment last year, suggesting widespread job loss related to the pandemic created a huge group of newly eligible adults.

Read the full report here: Report