Alabama surprised that Medicaid enrollment expands even as the unemployment rate falls

[Redfairen]

A sharp drop in the state's unemployment rate hasn't decreased the number of people covered by Alabama Medicaid, a paradox that state officials didn't foresee.

"I made the assumption that if unemployment went down, enrollment would go down," said state health officer Don Williamson, the state's point man on Medicaid costs. "I was completely wrong."

For the past few years, state officials have been hoping an economic recovery would ride to the rescue of the Alabama Medicaid Agency. Before the 2008 recession, about 750,000 people were enrolled in Medicaid, the state-and-federal health care program for the poor. After the crash, the Medicaid rolls swelled by tens of thousands, and the state's cost to run the program grew accordingly. In 2010, with federal stimulus funds to pick up part of the cost of that growth, the state paid $307 million for the program. Medicaid got $615 million from the state this year; Williamson said the program needs $700 million next year.

State leaders have already tried emergency measures to pay for the program, including a $437 million raid on a state trust fund to fill the hole Medicaid left in the state budget. It's not clear what the state will do when that money runs out in 2016. It wasn't supposed to be a problem. Buoyed by signs of a steady-but-slow recovery, state officials expected that when Alabamians returned to work post-recession, they'd get employer-provided insurance and leave the Medicaid rolls.

That hasn't happened. Unemployment in Alabama is at 6.1 percent, the Alabama Department of Labor reported Friday. In 2009, at the height of the recession, unemployment topped 10 percent. The number of people enrolled in Medicaid has climbed steadily over that same time, from just more than 800,000 in 2009 to 970,000 in December. Counting everyone who was eligible for Medicaid at some point during 2013, the number tops 1 million.

http://annistonstar.com/view/full_story/24453933/article-Unemployment-is-down--but-enrollment-in-Alabama-s-struggling-Medicaid-system-continues-to-rise?

And on top of all that, Alabama is one of.the states refusing to expand its Medicaid program under the ACA

[crazylikafox]

1. When so many of the new jobs pay poverty wages, why does this surprise them??

[riversedge]

3. Most repugs refuse to acknowledge that--along with poverty in general.

[CottonBear]

2. Why not just expand the Medicaid program under the ACA?

Because the Black Democratic President would get the credit, that's why.

[Igel]

4. How would that help?

There'd be money for a few years at least to cover the expansion. But there's no additional money for those below the old cut-off level and there's no reason to suspect that those currently registered under the old cut-off level would suddenly report that their income increased just enough to land them in the gap between the old cut-off and 133% of poverty.

[CottonBear]

5. True. That's probably what the GA GOP has been thinking.