The expanded Medicaid program is a frequent topic of discussion as our nation and state look toward the future on health care.
Whatever is decided, it will be our responsibility to implement it.
As a point of reference, we currently have more than 231,000 county residents in the Medicaid program and we spent $1,760,215,299 last year on delivering health care to Medicaid recipients.
These Medicaid dollars are spent with local doctors, hospitals and other medical facilities, and the money plays a big role in the local economy.
The dollars are not all related to Medicaid expansion. In 2013, we had 175,000 Medicaid recipients, prior to expansion. Then the state decided to expand Medicaid to cover people with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty level – at the time, $15,856 for a single person and $32,499 for a family of four.
Immediately, people who did not have affordable insurance began signing up under the expanded guidelines. At one point, we were processing about 200 additional new applications a day.
Medicaid is by far our biggest program. We have more local resident involved in our Child Support program, and our Children’s Services program garners the most public attention, but the Medicaid program makes up about 80 percent of our budget.
