Medicaid Enrollment Surging Despite Obamacare Problems

More people are enrolling in Medicaid rather than in private insurance plans, leading critics of Obamacare to charge that the federal government will end up playing a much bigger role in the nation's healthcare system than had been expected.

Medicaid expansion always was expected to be a major part of bringing health coverage to the uninsured, reports The Wall Street Journal. The state reports are seen as good news for Obamacare advocates who said the law would bring health insurance to even more Americans.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, 9 million people were expected to sign up for Medicaid in 201; 7 million were expected to sign up for private coverage. 

But the Obamacare website's ongoing problems are slowing the number of people able to sign up for private plans.

No figures are available for Medicaid expansion in the 36 states where people are being enrolled through the troubled federal HealthCare.gov website. But in states which have set up their own exchanges under Obamacare, Medicaid enrollment is booming.

In Kentucky, for example, 82 percent, or 21,342, of those enrolling in new insurance plans under Obamacare are signing up for Medicaid, the Journal reported. In Washington, it's 87 percent of 35,528; and in New York, 64 percent of some 37,000.

Part of the growth is because states are reaching out to people who already receive federal benefits such as food stamps, said Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors.

Via: Newsmax

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