By Abby Emanuelson, Executive Director, Care4Carolina
As North Carolina puts forth their goals and plans for expanded Medicaid, Care4Carolina will continue to raise the voices of populations in the health insurance coverage gap. Together, we must ensure that North Carolina attains the promises of health and economic security once Medicaid expansion is in full swing.
May is Older Americans Month, among others including AAPI Heritage Month, Mental Health Awareness, Jewish American Heritage. In May, the AARP Public Policy Institute (PPI) released a new fact sheet that analyzes Medicaid enrollment subpopulation data and establishes a profile of midlife Medicaid enrollees. Midlife adults are ages 50-64 and in 2019, 11 million midlife Americans depended on Medicaid coverage for health care.
As several thousands of midlife adults are expected to lose coverage during the public health emergency (PHE) unwinding, North Carolina’s expanded Medicaid program will provide healthcare access to approximately 182,000 midlife adults. The data presented in the fact sheet finds that “nationally, midlife adult Medicaid enrollees are slightly less diverse than the overall Medicaid population and slightly more diverse than the overall 50- to-64 population.”
From the data from expansion states in 2019, the demographic characteristics of Medicaid enrollees will be majority white, female and living in metropolitan areas. Also, of note in these findings and a key takeaway is that “midlife adults who are dually enrolled in Medicaid and Medicare, most often due to a disability or chronic disease, comprise nearly half of midlife Medicaid enrollees in non-expansion states. As a result, midlife Medicaid enrollees in non-expansion states may be sicker and require more care than midlife enrollees in expansion states.”
With the nearly 200,0000 expected midlife Medicaid enrollees, these findings can help inform enrollment efforts here in North Carolina. Moreover, this is a baseline to compare North Carolina’s enrollment of midlife adults to other expansion states. Is NC more rural, race and ethnically diverse or sicker than other expansion states and what can this provide to other states should they choose to expand their Medicaid programs?