States with Highest Medicaid Reliance: New Mexico, Louisiana, and New York Top the List

As lawmakers in Washington, D.C., think about how to cut the government budget by billions of dollars to pay for tax and immigration reform, the future of Medicaid and CHIP is once again in the spotlight.

About 82 million Americans, mostly children, low-income adults, seniors, and people with disabilities, rely on these programs for their health care. Plans to cut them are making people worried. Recently conducted polls show that most Americans do not want Medicaid spending to be cut.

States with a lot of Medicaid recipients

Medicaid doesn’t just help people in need; it’s also a big part of how hospitals, health centers, and care homes across the country get their money.

Medicaid is run by each state according to federal rules, and Washington provides matched funds.

The Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act let states cover more people. As of now, 41 states and Washington, D.C. have accepted the expansion.

Still, the number of people who sign up for Medicaid changes a lot from state to state.

New Mexico is at the top of the list with more than a third (33.5%) of its people on Medicaid or CHIP. Louisiana is close behind with 32.4%.

The enrolment rates in New York, Kentucky, and West Virginia are also high, at about 28% each.

In California, which has one of the biggest populations in the country, 26.8% of the people who live there depend on Medicaid or CHIP.

It’s interesting that the data shows that both red and blue states have a lot of people on Medicaid.

Democrats are in charge of New Mexico and California, but Republicans are in charge of Louisiana and Kentucky, which are two of the top five states.

One-third of Alaskans are registered, which puts the state fourth among GOP-led states across the country.

Lisa Murkowski, a senator from Alaska, has said in public that she will fight to protect Medicaid coverage in her state.

Putting politics aside, these numbers show how much people in both rural and urban places depend on Medicaid.

Changes that are being considered, like making people work or cutting back on spending, could have a big effect on millions of families and put a lot of stress on state health systems.

And since only a small part of the public thinks Medicaid has too much money, any cuts are sure to be opposed.

Congress is still arguing about where to cut the budget, but the people who get Medicaid and the states that count on it the most are still at great risk.

About The Author