Maine: Medicaid expansion enrollment up 68% since COVID hit; total Medicaid up 21%

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 Maine. For enrollment data from January 2021 on, I'm relying on adjusted estimates based on raw data from the Maine Dept. of Health & Human Services.

ACA Medicaid expansion didn't go into effect until 2019 (it was supposed to be implemented earlier but that was blocked by the then-GOP Governor), but since then total enrollment (including expansion) has gradually climbed as the expansion program ramped up.

Since COVID hit last February, enrollment in non-ACA Medicaid has only increased a modest 11%, but ACA expansion enrollment has gone up by an eyebrow-raising 67.9%, for an overall increase of 20.9% statewide.

Maine has 1,362,359 residents according to the 2020 U.S. Census. As of April 2021:

• around 344,000 are enrolled in Medicaid overall, or nealry 40% of the population
• around 260,000 are enrolled in non-ACA Medicaid
• around 83,000 are enrolled in ACA Medicaid expansion.

• Add in the ~51,000 subsidized ACA exchange enrollees and that's around 134,000 Maine residents who would lose healthcare coverage if the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act, or 9.8% of the state population.