The vast majority of Kentucky’s Medicaid recipients are eligible for the program because of the 2013 expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
Then-Governor Steve Beshear opened up the state’s Medicaid system under the Affordable Care Act, allowing more lower-income Kentuckians on board. A study by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky shows 78 percent of those on Medicaid during the third quarter of 2016 were expansion enrollees. Foundation president and CEO Ben Chandler said the state’s share of the increased Medicaid costs is a worthy investment. He said more spending towards preventative care means less spending on the back end.
“That’s why we spend so much on health care in Kentucky and in the nation as a whole, because we’re spending money when people reach an acute stage,” Chandler said.
Chandler said the expansion has been great news for those with incomes that fall just above the poverty line, but are still too low for them to afford other health insurance.
“People have the ability to go get preventive care, to keep them more healthy on the front end if they have insurance, and they don’t to just rely on emergency rooms,” Chandler said.
Nearly 651 thousand adult Kentuckians were covered by Medicaid during the time period covered by the study. Seventy-eight percent of those were Medicaid expansion enrollees and twenty-five percent of expansion enrollees were ages 26 to 34.
