More low income people now have access to regular health care thanks to Obamacare; more than 9.1 million, in fact. That's how many people are newly enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP,
according to Health and Human Services.
The Health Insurance Marketplace, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are critical in ensuring coverage for many individuals. By the end of the first open enrollment period, over 8 million people selected Qualified Health Plans (QHP) through the Marketplace. As of October 2014, 7.1 million people were enrolled and paying for health coverage through the Marketplace. This latter number represents a snapshot of a point in time, not the cumulative enrollment data from October 2013 through October 2014.
And today’s Medicaid enrollment report shows even more great news: over 9.1 million additional people now have coverage through Medicaid and CHIP, many for the very first time. Medicaid enrollment grew to nearly 68 million people in September 2014, which is approximately a 16 percent increase over the average monthly enrollment for July through September 2013.
Today’s report shows that while enrollment in states that expanded Medicaid has risen by approximately 23 percent since before open enrollment in the Marketplace began, states that have not expanded reported only a 6 percent increase in enrollment during this same period.
If the 23 states which are still refusing Medicaid expansion reversed course and took the expansion,
nearly four million more would be covered, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. A quarter of those people still in the Medicaid gap live in Texas, nearly a fifth in Florida. Two-thirds of the people who fall into the Medicaid gap nationally are the working poor, in jobs that don't provide health insurance benefits.
After massive Republican wins in this year's election, it's unlikely that Republican lawmakers will see any reason to change their minds and accept the expansion. The only real hope, if it can be called "hope," is that the situation for hospitals becomes so dire that something has to be done.