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Medicaid for Women

Medical Expenses Medicaid for Women

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Medicaid For Women

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Medicaid for Women

Medicaid, the nation’s health coverage program for poor and low-income people, provided more than 25 million low-income women with health and long-term care coverage in 2014. In all states, Medicaid provides coverage for some low-income people, families and children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with disabilities. In some states, Medicaid has been expanded to cover all adults below a certain income level.

If you are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid (dual eligible), you can have both. Medicare and Medicaid will work together to provide you with very good health coverage.

Eligibility for Coverage

Many women who are uninsured are potentially eligible for coverage, Medicaid or subsidies but are not enrolled. Some, however, still lack any pathway to affordable coverage.

- One in five uninsured women are currently eligible for Medicaid but are not enrolled and another third are income-eligible for a subsidized Marketplace plan.
- Around 2.4 million women are uninsured but have an offer of employer-based insurance or are not eligible for a subsidy under the ACA because their income exceeds the thresholds for assistance.
- An estimated 1.1 million poor women in the so-called “Medicaid coverage gap” live in states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs. These women would qualify for Medicaid if their states would opt to expanded program eligibility to 138% of the federal poverty level, as they are permitted to do under the ACA. States that have not expanded Medicaid typically have higher uninsured rates than those that have.
- Approximately 1.5 million undocumented women are uninsured yet ineligible for Medicaid, and in nearly all states these women are prohibited from purchasing insurance on the Marketplaces.