Medicaid Expansion Provides Many Benefits, Including Saving Money for Many States

The Washington, DC-based Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) recently published two new resources that show how Medicaid expansion is working in states that have accepted the expansion funding offered by the federal government.

First, CBPP published a new "chart book" showing how Medicaid expansion has led to:

• Wider health coverage

• Better access to health care

• Better health outcomes

• More financial security

• More support for employment

• Improved substance use treatment

• Better financial health for rural hospitals
  
  

Read: Chart Book: The Far-Reaching Benefits of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid Expansion

Additionally, CBPP also recently published a factsheet showing that Medicaid expansion has created budget savings for many of the states that have accepted the expansion funding from the federal government: 

"Many state and independent analyses have found that expansion produced net savings for state budgets while the federal government was paying the full cost of expansion enrollees, since expansion allowed states to spend less in other areas.[5] For example, as more people gained coverage, hospitals’ uncompensated care costs — and thus, for some states, payments to hospitals to help cover those costs — fell. States also spent less on programs serving people with mental health or behavioral health needs since Medicaid paid for their treatment, and less on corrections as federal Medicaid dollars paid a greater share of the inpatient hospital costs of inmates eligible for and enrolled in Medicaid. And, in states that tax managed care plans serving Medicaid beneficiaries, increased enrollment has generated revenue gains that further offset the cost of expansion.

"Going forward, even with the federal share of expansion dropping to 90 percent, some states project savings that will offset much (though not all) of their expansion costs, while others project expansion will continue producing net budget savings."

Read: Medicaid Expansion Continues to Benefit State Budgets, Contrary to Critics’ Claims