States face uncertainty as they prepare for growing Medicaid rolls in 2014

As states make plans for an anticipated increase in Medicaid enrollment next year, there are still questions about what they should expect (Source: “Program to cover 8 million more people, but many unknowns loom,” McClatchy Newspapers, via Columbus Dispatch, Feb. 15, 2013).

 “The challenge is, you don’t know who will show up until they show up,” said Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors.

He said that nearly every state that has undergone a large expansion of its Medicaid eligibility has seen two things: “More people show up than you think will show up, and the people that show up are sicker than you expected.”