I recently published an ambitious spreadsheet which attempted to compile a comprehensive & up to date tally of total ACA healthcare coverage (including both exchange-based Qualified Health Plans (QHPs), Basic Health Plans (BHPs) and ACA Medicaid expansion enrollment), broken out by not just state but by Congressional District.
Doing this on a state-by-state level is easy. Doing so by Congressional District (CD) gets a lot trickier.
As I noted in my prior article, for state level ACA enrollment I'm using official data reports from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for the "baseline" numbers, supplemented by more recent state-level data from some of the state-based ACA exchanges & state Health & Human Services departments.
There's only a single CD in Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming, as well as one non-voting House member in the District of Columbia, so no further work is needed for those. For the other 43 states, however, breaking the enrollment data out by CD gets trickier.
In October 2024, 79.3 million individuals were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.
72.1 million individuals were enrolled in Medicaid, and 7.2 million individuals were enrolled in CHIP.
41.7 million adults were enrolled in Medicaid, and there were 37.6 million Medicaid child and CHIP enrollees.
Medicaid and CHIP Applications Received
In October 2024, Medicaid, CHIP, Human Services agencies, and State-based Marketplaces received 2.6 million applications, or 2 percent more applications, as compared to September 2024.
The number of applications received has increased by 20 percent since October 2023 and increased by 66 percent since October 2022.
Total Medicaid/CHIP enrollment in October 2024 still dropped very slightly from September...by just 55,000 people.
In August 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (passed with into law with purely Democratic votes).
While the IRA included a long list of landmark provisions, in addition to the critical upgraded ACA premium subsidieswhich are unfortunately set to expire at the end of 2025, other healthcare-related ones include:
Every month for years now, the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) has published a monthly press release with a breakout of total Medicare, Medicaid & CHIP enrollment; the most recent one was posted in late February, and ran through November 2022.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, some people with Medicare will pay less for some Part B drugs because the drug’s price increased faster than the rate of inflation.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), today announced that some Medicare enrollees will pay less for 64 drugs available through Medicare Part B. The drugs will have a lowered Part B coinsurance rate from January 1, 2025 – March 31, 2025, since drug companies raised prices for each of these 64 drugs faster than the rate of inflation. Over 853,000 people with Medicare use these drugs annually to treat conditions such as cancer, osteoporosis, and substance use disorder. Since April 1, 2023, people with Medicare have seen savings on over 120 drugs thanks to Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program.
Originally published 3/30/18; updated 12/10/24 with figures adjusted for enrollment growth & inflation through 2024.
Whenever the discussion of what the next Big Move for healthcare policy should be comes up in Democratic/progressive circles, the incredibly difficult path which had to be paved to get the Affordable Care Act passed in 2009-2010 is often brought up as an example of how difficult it is to make even minor changes, much less major ones.
That gets a bit repetitive after awhile, however, so here's another excellent case study from 20 years earlier: The Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988.
Every month for years now, the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) has published a monthly press release with a breakout of total Medicare, Medicaid & CHIP enrollment; the most recent one was posted in late February, and ran through November 2022.
Biden-Harris Administration Announces Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Proposals that Aim to Improve Care and Access for Enrollees
Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing actions in the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicare Part D prescription drug programs to continue to strengthen protections and access to care for people with Medicare. The Contract Year (CY) 2026 MA and Part D proposed rule aims to hold MA and Part D plans more accountable for delivering high-quality coverage so that people with Medicare are connected to the care they need when they need it.
