This edition of our 5 Slide Series coincides with today’s release of a new report, “Assessment of Medicaid Expansion’s Impacts.”  The 5 Slide Series creates an opportunity for our staff team to contribute to the Medicaid industry outside the boundaries of our project work, and this report represents a more significant effort of that nature. The idea for this assessment came from Jack Meyer, one of Joel’s early career mentors, and Jack is also one of the Report’s co-authors. The report is attached, and is summarized in the also attached August 2021 edition of the 5 Slide Series. A couple of what we view to be the most significant findings include:

• The state share of Medicaid costs rose 19.5% from 2013-2019 across states that expanded Medicaid, versus a 26.4% increase in states that had not expanded Medicaid as of 2019. Those states electing to expand Medicaid found a path to cover far more persons and experience modest state-fund Medicaid cost increases in the process, relative to the Non-Expansion states. This finding suggests that expanding Medicaid has proven to be “better than free” in terms of state Medicaid costs.
• Medicaid Expansion has not inhibited employment – and may have led to a slight employment gain. These employment dynamics were assessed in six ways, with all six analyses yielding this same result.