Taking a Deep Dive into the Growth of Medicaid

Let’s delve into some important statistics regarding Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, CHIP, as of February 2023.

Medicaid and CHIP programs experienced significant growth in enrollees.

As of February 2023, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recorded a total of 93,373,794 individuals enrolled in these programs.  Considering that there are 332 million people in the United States, that means more than 28 percent of all people in our country are covered by Medicaid.

Let’s break down this number further.

Medicaid, in particular, saw an enrollment of 86,174,094 individuals during the same period. This is a substantial increase of 291,095 individuals compared to the previous month, January 2023.

Similarly, the CHIP program didn’t lag behind, recording an enrollment of 7,199,700 individuals in February 2023. This is an upward climb of 111,838 individuals from January 2023’s numbers.

Now, when we draw a comparison to February 2020, we can clearly see an impressive upward trend in enrollment numbers for both Medicaid and CHIP. Specifically, enrollment has surged by 22,723,554 individuals, marking a 32.2 percent increase.

Drilling down, Medicaid’s enrollee count has skyrocketed by 22,369,004 individuals, which translates to a robust growth of 35.1 percent. On the other hand, CHIP has seen an enrollment increase by 354,550 individuals, a decent rise of 5.2 percent.

What could be driving these increases, you may ask? We attribute this growth predominantly to the COVID-19 pandemic and the continuous enrollment condition outlined in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). The crisis has led to an increased dependency on these programs, underscoring their critical role in our healthcare system.

Some states are fighting back against the growth curve.  My home state of Florida just disenrolled over 250,000 people from Medicaid.  Most of the people disenrolled did not respond to a request to update their information.

We will continue to monitor these trends and their implications moving forward.

Programming note: Listen to Tim Powell report this story live this morning during Talk Ten Tuesdays with Chuck Buck and Dr. Erica Remer.