Insurance for a Healthier Future: How Medicaid Supports Us All

Medicaid covers more births in the United States than any other insurer and prevents maternal deaths, especially for Black women. Research shows that Medicaid coverage increases access to routine primary care, contraception, breast and cervical cancer screening, prenatal visits, doulas and midwives, and breastfeeding services. By providing access to comprehensive healthcare before, during, and after pregnancy, Medicaid is crucial for advancing reproductive justice, or the right for every person to: bodily autonomy and privacy, have children, not have children, and parent in safe and sustainable communities.

Medicaid is an important source of health coverage for millions of children and young adults. The Early, Periodic, Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit provides children under age 21 with comprehensive care including screening and care for mental health and substance use disorders. Medicaid also covers 29% of young adults ages 18-24, who have the highest uninsurance rates of any age group because they are less financially stable, more likely to work low-wage or gig economy jobs or be unemployed, and face frequent transitions that can disrupt access to insurance, including moving, graduating school, and changing jobs.

Medicaid helps more than 7 million seniors aged 65 and older access and afford care that Medicare does not cover, and is the primary payer for long-term services like nursing homes and home-based care. The program also helps nearly 1 in 5 older adults aged 50 to 64, a population often navigating health challenges that make full-time work difficult, meet all of their health needs, preventing premature deaths. Research shows that people who maintain Medicaid before and after age 65 have fewer chronic conditions, less depression, fewer limitations on activities of daily living, and significantly reduced mortality at age 75.

People with disabilities are more likely to get their health insurance through Medicaid. This is important because people with disabilities have lower rates of employment and employer-sponsored insurance, lower incomes, and higher healthcare needs and spending—especially for long-term care, which Medicaid is the largest payer for. Medicaid also increases employment among adults with disabilities and helps them remain in the workforce.

Hospitals and health systems, community health centers, and providers depend on Medicaid to prevent closures and keep providing care to all patients. Medicaid spending accounts for nearly 20% of all hospital spending nationally and as much as 25% in some states, over 40% of operating funds for community health centers, and Medicaid is the largest funder of mental health and substance use treatment services. This creates jobs for physicians, nurses, community health workers, doulas, midwives, home health aides, people in administrative roles, and more. Increased Medicaid revenue also allows states and hospitals to invest more resources back into their communities.

Medicaid provides coverage to 7.3 million family caregivers (e.g., children caring for aging parents, parents caring for adult children with disabilities, spouses caring for partners with serious illnesses) and over 30% of direct care workers (e.g., home health aides, nursing assistants). By covering costs and services that Medicare does not cover, including long-term care, Medicaid reduces financial strain for family caregivers, who frequently face employment barriers and expenses related to their caregiving duties. Medicaid also helps address care workforce shortages as the U.S. population ages by funding long-term care services and by allowing for family caregivers to be compensated as direct care workers in some situations.
 

Nearly 1 in 10 veterans and 860,000 active-duty service members, National Guard and Reserve members, and their families rely on Medicaid to help them access and afford care, preventing medical debt and delayed or missed care because of cost. Medicaid can place veterans into a higher priority group for VA services and help them access care at non-VA facilities, and veterans with Medicaid are more likely to take their medications and receive care, including for mental health or substance use disorders. Medicaid also ensures that children of active-duty service members have access to comprehensive preventive care and dental coverage.

Medicaid makes care in rural America affordable by reducing uninsurance rates, expanding telehealth coverage, bringing providers to rural areas, and providing revenue that keeps rural hospitals open. Research shows that Medicaid expansion significantly prevented rural hospital closures. Children and adults in rural areas are more likely to be enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), including more than half of all children in rural parts of New Mexico, Louisiana, Arizona, Florida, South Carolina, and Arkansas, and 50% of children living in rural American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Medicaid also covers 47% of all births in rural areas.