The expansion of Medicaid coverage is one of the biggest, and most controversial, parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The total number of states that have expanded Medicaid recently reached 27 (28 if you include the District of Columbia) with last week's addition of Pennsylvania.
The Kaiser Family Foundation tracked enrollment of Medicaid and Child Health Insurance Program patients from January to June of this year. Of the states that expanded enrollment, here are the top five* with the highest total enrollment numbers:
1. California (10.9 million)
2. New York (6.1 million)
3. Illinois (2.9 million)
4. Ohio (2.6 million)
5. Pennsylvania (2.4 million)
The top five states that have not expanded coverage with the highest enrollment of Medicaid and CHIP patients for the same time span are:
1. Texas (4.5 million)
2. Florida (3.3 million)
3. North Carolina (1.8 million)
4. Georgia (1.8 million)
5. Tennessee (1.3 million)
*Maine and North Dakota were not included because data either wasn't submitted or was incomplete, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.