Streamlining New Medicaid Enrollments a Win-Win for Maryland

Lawmakers in Annapolis have the opportunity to provide more Marylanders with health coverage and make state government more efficient at the same time.

Although Maryland has expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, tens of thousands of eligible residents are not yet enrolled. That could be corrected by legislation -- the Medicaid Streamlined Eligibility Act (HB 954) -- that would automatically enroll individuals in Medicaid if they are eligible  for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance  Program (SNAP) or  if their children are eligible for Medicaid. The legislation, which was the subject of a committee hearing this week, would also allow 12-month continuous Medicaid eligibility for parents and children.

Besides increasing access to health coverage, adopting these measures would end costly, duplicative verification processes  for safety net programs with similar eligibility levels. That’s particularly true of the provision that would link Medicaid and SNAP eligibility.

Some 84.4 percent of all households receiving SNAP benefits in Maryland also are eligible for Medicaid – nearly 218,000 households. Maryland expanded Medicaid eligibility to anyone earning up to138 percent of the poverty line  ($27,310 a year for a family of three), and the vast majority of SNAP participants have incomes at or below this level.

In addition, most of the funding to pay for the increased Medicaid coverage would come from the federal government, not the state. The Department of Legislative Services expects that federal dollars will cover the entire cost for 90 percent of those who  would enroll in Medicaid through this streamlined process.   

Source: Maryland Department of Legislative Services (click to enlarge)

Note: The estimates for FY 2015 and FY 2016 include costs for all aspects of HB 954.

Medicaid is an efficient program that makes beneficiaries healthier by improving access to preventive and primary care. Its per-beneficiary costs are lower than those of private insurance, and its costs have been growing more slowly than employer coverage.  

Enrolling Maryland residents in Medicaid if they are already participating in SNAP will help make sure more Marylanders get the health coverage they need – and the economic security and peace of mind that go with it. It also would allow Maryland to identify and enroll eligible people more quickly and with less paperwork.