Dive Brief:
- A recently released Kaiser Family Foundation report finds 49%, or 15.7 million, of the 32.3 million Americans without health insurance are eligible for Medicaid or subsidized coverage through an ACA marketplace.
- On a state level, the share of the uninsured population eligible for those two forms of insurance-related financial assistance ranges from 35% in Nebraska and Texas to 75% in West Virginia, according to the analysis.
- Ten percent (3.1 million) of the nonelderly uninsured fall into a coverage gap in which they earn too much to be eligible for Medicaid but not enough to qualify for financial assistance through an ACA marketplace.
Dive Insight:
Five states, including some with the largest populations, account for approximately 40% of the uninsured population that could receive Medicaid or subsidized private coverage under the ACA, including California (2.1 million uninsured eligible for assistance), Texas (1.5 million eligible), Florida (1.1 million eligible), New York (865,000 eligible), and Pennsylvania (656,000 eligible).
Among states that haven’t expanded Medicaid, the largest number of people in the coverage gap live in Texas (766,000 people), Florida (567,000), Georgia (305,000), and North Carolina (244,000), according to a prepared statement from KFF.