Indiana: ACA Medicaid expansion up to 290K (83% of total eligible)

A few weeks ago I reported that Indiana's implentation of the ACA's Medicaid expansion provision, which kicked off at the end of January, was already up to 237,000 enrollees.

Today, that number is significantly higher yet:

Industry representatives say Indiana's expanded health care program for low-income residents has functioned smoothly in the months since it was implemented following federal approval.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in January approved expanding the existing Healthy Indiana Plan into a larger program that Gov. Mike Pence has dubbed HIP 2.0. That program uses federal Medicaid funds under President Barack Obama's health care law to cover people with incomes under 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

State enrollment in HIP 2.0 has climbed to nearly 290,000 participants, with about 60 percent of those people under age 40, according to state figures presented Thursday during a public hearing in Indianapolis on the program.

...State officials say the program is expected to provide coverage to 350,000 low-income, uninsured Hoosiers. Total enrollment is expected to reach about 680,000 as people move to the plan from traditional Medicaid and participants shift over from the initial version of HIP, which began under the administration of former Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Regardless of the complicated nature of Indiana's version of the program, I can't deny that hitting 83% of potential enrollment in just 5 months is pretty astonishing. Then again, the Kaiser Family Foundation's estimate of the total potential enrollment number is somewhat higher (431K), so I guess it depends on whose numbers you use.

Either way, chalk up another 53,000 people covered.