Idaho: Medicaid expansion enrollment up 62% since COVID hit; total Medicaid up 20%

I've once again relaunched my project from last fall to track Medicaid enrollment (both standard and expansion alike) on a monthly basis for every state dating back to the ACA being signed into law.

For the various enrollment data, I'm using data from Medicaid.gov's Medicaid Enrollment Data Collected Through MBES reports. Unfortunately, they've only published enrollment data through December 2020. In some states I've been able to get more recent enrollment data from state websites and other sources.

Today I'm presenting Idaho, which only actually implemented Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act starting in January 2020...and thank God they did, because less than 2 months later everything hit the fan when the COVID pandemic hit the U.S., hard. In Idaho's case I've gotten data through April directly via the Idaho Dept. of Heath & Welfare.

Since the pandemic hit, Idaho's traditional Medicaid enrollment, which had been gradually dropping off over the previous year or two, only has only increased a relatively modest 9.2%. Their expansion enrollment, however, has jumped by a dramatic 61.6%. Granted, much of this is due ot the fact that they were still ramping up the program anyway, but still. Total Medicaid enrollment is up 19.5% since last February.

Idaho has 1,839,106 residents. As of April 2021:

• 414,000 were enrolled in Medicaid overall, or 22.5% of the population
• 304,000 were enrolled in non-ACA Medicaid
• 110,000 were enrolled in ACA Medicaid expansion.

• Add in the ~57,000 subsidized ACA exchange enrollees and that's around 167,000 Idaho residents who would lose healthcare coverage if the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act, or 9.1% of the state population.