Unlocked: What is Medicaid?

Medicaid was signed into law in 1965 as a health insurance program for low-income people. As of November 2024, nearly 72 million people were enrolled in Medicaid in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to medicaid.gov.

Medicaid is jointly funded by states and the federal government and provides health coverage to one in five Americans with low income, including adults, children, pregnant women, older adults and people with disabilities. It’s a major source of federal funding for states, and it makes up a large part of state budgets, after elementary and secondary education.

The Journalist’s Resource’s new explainer on Medicaid covers the following topics:

• Medicaid basics
• Medicaid by the numbers
• How the federal-state match program works
• What happens if the 90% federal match rate for ACA Medicaid expansion is reduced?
• What are Medicaid provider taxes?
• How big of a problem are fraud, waste and abuse in Medicaid?
• What are Medicaid work requirements?
• What are block grants and per capita caps?
• Research studies on Medicaid

Read the full Explainer from Naseem Miller at The Journalist’s Resource: Medicaid: A guide to understanding potential cuts to the program

Additional Resources: Read Kerry Dooley Young’s 2023 research roundup for The Journalist’s Resource: The expanding role of Medicaid in US health care, which provides helpful context about how Medicaid works, including research on Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).