Michigan: ACA Medicaid expansion up to 323K in 100 days; 64% of total eligible

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder doesn't have many things to be proud of, but this is one of them: He did help push the ACA's Medicaid expansion through the extremist GOP-controlled state legislature. In response, the Healthy Michigan program has now enrolled over 323,000 newly-qualified people in Medicaid & CHIP:

LANSING, Mich. – Gov. Rick Snyder today announced that after less than four months, enrollment for the Healthy Michigan Plan already has surpassed its first-year goal of 322,000.

As of today, July 10, Michigan has 323,022 Michigan residents enrolled in the program. The Healthy Michigan Plan extends health care benefits to a half-million low-income residents. Enrollment for the plan began April 1.

The press release mostly crows about reaching the "first year goal" of 322K people in only 14 weeks, but to me the more impressive achievement is hitting 64% of the total eligible population (500K) in that time.

The release also gives a bit of insight as to the discrepancy between the official CMS "additional Medicaid/CHIP enrollment" figure of 6.7 million as of 4/30 and my own estimate of expansion determinations (9.9 million). 6.7 / 9.9 is about 68%. As it happens, Michigan is running at around 71% actually enrolled out of the 323K total:

MDCH, DHS and DTMB continue to monitor systems, but overall, enrollment continues to go smoothly. Of the 323,022 new enrollees, more than 230,000 already have enrolled in a Medicaid health plan.

Considering that the CMS 6.7 million figure only runs through the end of April, this lends more support to my own estimate of 9.9 million who have been determined eligible for the program.

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