Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program enrollment would go up by about 37.4 percent if all states expanded their benefit programs under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, rising from 48.3 million before the expansion to an estimated 66.4 million after full implementation,according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report.
If all states expanded their Medicaid coverage under the PPACA, enrollment would increase by about 18.1 million people nationwide, and the uninsured population would shrink by 23.1 million, according to the analysis, which used the Urban Institute's American Community Survey-Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model. It may take until 2016 or longer for enrollment to reach the levels projected by the model, depending on how long it takes enrollment to ramp up, according to the Urban Institute.
It's still unclear how many states will decide to expand Medicaid coverage, according to the report. As of July 1, 2013, 22 states were moving forward with the Medicaid expansion and six were debating it, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The PPACA includes a Medicaid expansion provision that extends coverage to people with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. The expansion is optional for state governments, following the Supreme Court ruling on the law in June 2012.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has also created an interactive map showing how Medicaid enrollment would change on a state and sub-state level under the expansion. If every state expanded its Medicaid program, 14 states would see enrollment increase by more than 50 percent.
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