Louisiana's Medicaid expansion continues apace, with a bit over 250,000 state residents gaining coverage since the program went live on July 1. As I noted in a prior post, most of those enrollees, about 190,000, were transferred from existing public limited-benefit plans. At present, about 2,500 people per day are enrolling. The state is aiming for about 375,000 new enrollees overall.
According to Andrew Tuozzolo, Chief of Staff at the Louisiana Department of Health, that target does not include enrollees in ACA marketplace plans rendered newly eligible for Medicaid. (In states that refused to implement the ACA Medicaid expansion, which included Louisiana until this year, eligibility for private plan subsidies begins at 100% of the Federal Poverty Level. In expansion states, residents with incomes up to 138% FPL are eligible for Medicaid, and not for private plan subsidies.)
Thanks to enrollment data released by CMS early this month, we now know that almost 85,000 Louisianans who had enrolled in private plans in the ACA marketplace as of the end of Open Season on Jan. 31 -- 40% of all enrollees -- reported incomes in the 100-138% FPL range. Most of those 85,000, though not all, should now be eligible for Medicaid, the chief exceptions being legally present noncitizens subject to the federal "five-year" bar to Medicaid eligibility. About 15% of the state's marketplace enrollees had dropped out (or in most cases, probably, never paid a premium) as of March 31. Most likely, then, about 70,000 current private plan enrollees are now Medicaid eligible (as well as perhaps 10-15,000 dropouts).
According to Andrew Tuozzolo, Chief of Staff at the Louisiana Department of Health, that target does not include enrollees in ACA marketplace plans rendered newly eligible for Medicaid. (In states that refused to implement the ACA Medicaid expansion, which included Louisiana until this year, eligibility for private plan subsidies begins at 100% of the Federal Poverty Level. In expansion states, residents with incomes up to 138% FPL are eligible for Medicaid, and not for private plan subsidies.)
Thanks to enrollment data released by CMS early this month, we now know that almost 85,000 Louisianans who had enrolled in private plans in the ACA marketplace as of the end of Open Season on Jan. 31 -- 40% of all enrollees -- reported incomes in the 100-138% FPL range. Most of those 85,000, though not all, should now be eligible for Medicaid, the chief exceptions being legally present noncitizens subject to the federal "five-year" bar to Medicaid eligibility. About 15% of the state's marketplace enrollees had dropped out (or in most cases, probably, never paid a premium) as of March 31. Most likely, then, about 70,000 current private plan enrollees are now Medicaid eligible (as well as perhaps 10-15,000 dropouts).
