ObamaCare Launch Leads 6.3 million to Become Eligible for Medicaid (Reuters)
More than 6.3 million Americans were deemed eligible for government healthcare plans for the poor since the Oct. 1 launch of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law through December, federal officials reported.The swelling rolls for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) reflect both an expansion of Medicaid under Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) and what healthcare policy analysts call an “out-of-the-woodwork effect,” in which people who heard about Obamacare sought to obtain health insurance and discovered that they had qualified for Medicaid even before the law expanded eligibility. It is unclear how increased Medicaid enrollment may affect investors of publicly traded healthcare companies but the situation is worth monitoring.
