Ohio Medicaid: 106k newly eligible have enrolled since Jan. 1

The Kasich administration announced this week that more than 106,000 newly eligible Ohioans have signed up for Medicaid since the program was expanded Jan. 1 (“About 106,000 Ohioans enroll in expanded Medicaid,” Associated Press via Akron Beacon Journal, April 10, 2014).

The Medicaid expansion allows all Ohioans earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level to gain health care coverage.  Ohio’s monthly report on Medicaid caseloads shows that 106,238 residents had enrolled under the extension as of March 31. That’s about 29 percent of the roughly 366,000 newly eligible people estimated to sign up by the end of June 2015.

More than 345,000 people have sought Medicaid coverage through the state’s benefit site since Oct. 1. About 65 percent of the applications have been resolved, while roughly 120,000 are still pending. Many of those cases await eligibility determinations by the state’s largest counties.