Ohio sees slight gain in recent Medicaid enrollment

As reported last week, Medicaid enrollment in the United States dropped for the first time in nearly a decade. (Source: "Enrollment in Medicaid Takes a Rare Dip" Associated Press, Oct. 11, 2007.) The 0.5% drop in enrollment lead to a 2.9% spending increase in 2006, the  "second smallest increase" in Medicaid spending in a decade. The numbers, compiled from a Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured survey of state Medicaid directors, attributed the slight enrollment decline to a "solid economy and to new documentation checks that require beneficiaries to prove their citizenship or that they are qualified legal immigrants."

The survey also included Ohio-specific data on Medicaid enrollment. Ohio Medicaid showed a slight gain in enrollment (less than 0.5%), going from 1,596,000 recipients in Dec. 2005 to 1,601,000 recipients in June 2006. (Source: Medicaid Enrollment in 50 States: June 2006 Update, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, page 52.) Those totals do not include new recipients from the SCHIP expansion. In the decade from June 1997 to June 2006, Ohio Medicaid enrollment grew 44.5% from 1,107,809 people to 1,601,273. If the SCHIP expansion is added in, Ohio Medicaid enrollment grew 57.4% during that same time period, from 1,107,809 people to 1,743,647. Despite this growth, there were drops in certain categories of enrollees, including a 21% drop in the number of aged Medicaid recipients in Ohio.