Pennsylvania: ACA Medicaid expansion already at 74K households (UPDATED)

Hat Tip To: 
Mary Ann

As the article notes, just because someone applies for Medicaid doesn't mean that they'll be approved (or some in the household might while others aren't). Still, assuming that, say, 95% are approved and enrolled, and assuming 1.8x people per household on average (the Census Bureau says it's more like 2.5x), that should still be a good 125K Pennsylvania residents added to the tally in the first 2 weeks...or over 20% of the total eligible in the state:

Two weeks after enrollment began, the state has received tens of thousands of applications for health care coverage by way of the “Healthy PA” program, which offers subsidized, Medicaid-like insurance through private carriers to low-income Pennsylvanians.

As of the end of the day Wednesday, the state had received applications from nearly 44,000 households, according to the Department of Human Services. It also has received an additional 30,000 household applications referrals through the federal health care marketplace.

That doesn’t necessarily mean all those applicants will be eligible to receive coverage, though likely many of them will be, said Kait Gillis, a DHS spokeswoman.

Enrollment opened Dec. 1. About 600,000 Pennsylvanians are estimated to be eligible for coverage.

UPDATE: Huh. OK, well this is irritating; according to a Healthcare Wonk who's in the know about such things, "74,000 applications for Healthy PA is 74,000 individuals as Healthy PA does not offer family coverage. A married couple counts as 2 applications."

OK, so we're talking about perhaps 70K people who'll actually be approved. I just wish everyone would be consistent in their terminology...

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