The first set of financial data released by Montana this week shows the state's seven-month-old Medicaid expansion has produced positive results so far, according to a Montana Public Radio report.
Here's a breakdown of data in the story, part of a reporting partnership with Montana Public Radio, NPR and Kaiser Health News.
- Montana Medicaid enrollment as of July is nearly double initial projections, at 47,399 of the 25,000 who were expected to enroll by now.
- Recipients have used their benefits to receive $75 million worth of healthcare, according to the state's figures.
- The state also said Montana saved $5.3 million by shifting 8,458 people from traditional Medicaid, where the state paid 34 percent of their costs, into the expansion population.
- As of May 2016, 92.6 percent of Montanans had health coverage, leaving an uninsured rate of about 7.4 percent, the state's insurance commissioner announced July 12. That's down from 20 percent in 2013, 16.9 percent in 2014 and 15 percent in 2015.
- The state health department recently told the special legislative committee that oversees Medicaid expansion that Montana has collected $1.1 million in Medicaid premiums so far, and that the average premium, which are assessed based on income, is $26 a month.
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