Michigan: Holy Crap. Medicaid expansion now up to as much as 5% more than total eligible

Remember last week when I noted that the "Healthy Michigan" program (MI's implementation of ACA Medicaid expansion) had reached 487,000 people, which was actually 2% more than the official estimate of how many Michiganders are even eligible for the program?

I made sure to note that this was just an estimate, after all, and that some other estimates put the number as high as 500,000 even.

Well, guess what?

Healthy Michigan Plan Enrollment Statistics

Beneficiaries with Healthy Michigan Plan Coverage: 501,860
(Includes beneficiaries enrolled in health plans and beneficiaries not required to enroll in a health plan.)

*Statistics as of December 22, 2014 
*Updated every Monday at 3 p.m.

Yup. Even using the higher number, Michigan has still broken through it in less than 9 months. And if you go by the 477K estimate, that means my state has managed to enroll 5.2% more than that.

I'm sure that FOX News, Breitbart, the Daily Caller and Rush Limbaugh are going to pounce all over this with "FRAUD!! COOKING THE BOOKS!!" bla bla bla. Of course, the program, while enabled and funded by the Affordable Care Act (you know..."Obamacare"), it was implemented by a completely Republican administration, so pipe down, boys.

There are two reasonable explanations for this overage: One, both the 477K and 500K estimates may have simply been wrong. Two, it's possible that the 502K figure has some clerical errors, such as people who dropped off the program and then reenrolled a few months later, for instance.

Either way, this is still amazing.