December 12, 2015
The NYT had an article reporting on the fact that the vast majority of people in Kentucky want the state to leave in place its expansion of the state’s Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), even though it just elected a governor who is strongly opposed to the ACA. The piece notes that 425,000 people in the state (just under 10 percent of the population) have signed up for Medicaid, then adds “by contrast, only 89,000 people have bought private coverage through Kynect, the state’s health care exchange.”
It is important to note that people phase in and out of the exchanges, in large part due to changing employment patterns. Roughly 3.0 percent of the workforce lose or leave their jobs every month. This means many people who had health care insurance may lose it or many who don’t have it may acquire it, as they change jobs. This means that the number of people who had insurance through the exchanges at some point over the last two years is likely far larger than the number currently on the exchanges.
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