Iowa: ACA-enabled Medicaid shoots up more than 51,000

Iowa's Medicaid total just got a nice shot in the arm. It seems that 55,034 Iowans who were previously enrolled in IowaCare have been bulk-transferred over ot Medicaid proper, on top of over 13,000 additional new enrollees. All of these people are specifically listed as being due to ACA Medicaid expansion, they are not woodworkers.

While the total above is 67,893, another article from the next day lists the exchange-based enrollments as "more than 13,000", so I've bumped it up by another 142.

More than 50,000 former IowaCare members automatically were enrolled in the new system, giving them access to more services and a choice in who provides their health care, including – in many cases – local options, McCoy said.

Including those who have signed up since, the Iowa Health and Wellness Plan through mid-February boasted a total enrollment of 67,893 – 55,034 in the wellness plan and 12,859 via the marketplace choice, according to McCoy.

March 02--The federal Affordable Care Act is enrolling Iowans into various health care insurance options, albeit with lots of bumps and changes on the fly. The accompanying new Iowa Health and Wellness Plan -- our state's version of expanded Medicaid -- is signing up more people who couldn't otherwise afford coverage. As of mid-February, more than 13,000 Iowans who previously weren't covered had enrolled.

While the articles are both very specific that these enrollments are all "strict expansion" (not woodworkers), this does mean that I'm removing the 17,000+ that I had previously estimated as Iowa's "strict expansion", for a net gain of about 51,000 "strict expansion" enrollees.