Prometheus 6

You're not going to have a choice about it.

Rate of Enrollment in Medicaid Rose Rapidly, Report Says
By KEVIN SACK

The recession is driving up enrollment in Medicaid at higher than expected rates, threatening gargantuan state budget gaps even as Congress and the White House seek to expand the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled, according to a survey released Wednesday.

The annual survey of state Medicaid directors, conducted for the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, found that the program had been spared the worst effects of massive state budget shortfalls because of federal aid in the stimulus package. But it also revealed grave concerns about what will happen when that relief dries up at the close of 2010.

As unemployment surged, enrollment in state Medicaid programs grew by an average of 5.4 percent in the previous fiscal year, the highest rate in six years, according to the Kaiser survey. In eight states, the growth exceeded 10 percent.

Last year’s average growth was well above the 3.6 percent that had been forecast by the Medicaid directors a year earlier. In this year’s survey, the directors projected that enrollment would continue to accelerate in the current 2010 fiscal year, growing by 6.6 percent.