Nearly 3.9M qualify for Medicaid under health law
12/20/2013WASHINGTON — The Obama administration says nearly 3.9 million people have qualified for coverage through the health care law’s Medicaid expansion.
The numbers released today cover the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30 and underscore a pattern of Medicaid outpacing the law’s expansion of private insurance.
Through the same time period, about 365,000 people had signed up for subsidized private insurance through new federal and state markets.
President Obama’s health overhaul expanded Medicaid to cover people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, about $15,860 for an individual and $32,500 for a family of four.
So far, 25 states and Washington, D.C., have accepted the expansion. It’s fully financed by Washington from 2014-2016, with the federal share gradually phasing down to 90 percent in later years.