Medicaid enrollment spiked in 2009

Medicaid Enrollment spiked in 2009

Medicaid has added 3.7 million people last year due to rising unemployment and corresponding losses in health benefits, an annual survey by health policy researcher Kaiser Family Foundation says.

It was the biggest increase in a single year in the history of the federal and state insurance program.

Medicaid, which offers comprehensive health insurance coverage to those in the jobless low-income bracket, registered an 8.2 percent hike in enrollment between December 2008 and December 2009, the second-fastest gain during the last ten years of Kaiser’s survey.

The Medicaid program covered one in every six Americans or 48.5 million by the end of last year.

All states posted increases in enrollment, with Nevada and Wisconsin reporting more than 20 percent hikes while nine other states with above 15 percent.

These spikes tend to drain state budgets as they shoulder part of the cost with the federal government.

Kaiser’s survey revealed that spending on Medicaid increased 8.8 percent in 2009, the biggest increase since 2002.

“We do have horrific pressures on the Medicaid program,” said Carol A. Hermann-Steckel, the Medicaid commissioner of Alabama.

States have been aided by a string of Congressional funding that eased the burden on their budgets. The administration’s stimulus package included $87 billion in Medicaid relief given to states, and lawmakers extended the aid program last month.

The government sees the increased Medicaid enrollment to include roughly half of the 32 million people without coverage who have been made eligible to get insurance by the new measure.

Posted by George Daniels on Friday October 01 2010, 8:33 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0