Medicaid is a health and long-term care coverage program that was enacted in 1965. “Medicaid is a joint program between the federal and state government to provide healthcare benefits to low-income persons and families” Castro (2013). It is administered by states within broad federal guidelines and jointly funded by the federal government and states. Since medicaid is jointly funded by the federal government and the states and since the states individually administer medicaid under broad federal guidelines, they differ from state to state. I will compare and contrast my home state of Pennsylvania (Pa) and the state Texas (Tx). Both states have seen an increase in enrollment since changes made in Oct 2013. Pennsylvania has adopted one of the targeted strategies outline by CMS while Texas had not. …show more content…
1268). This increase could speak to the adoption of targeted enrollment, but it should be noted that Texas has 4,748,762 individuals enrolled while Pa only has 2.928,888 enrolled, showing that Texas may have already had better enrollment system prior to 2013 which also artificially decreases this percentage. There are also differences in each state’s eligibility. Pa has set the financial level at a much higher percent of the federal poverty level compared to Tx, making it easier to get medicaid in Pa. Texas had not increased its coverage to lower income adults were Pa has. This increased coverage can be very beneficial to the PA system as it introduces a healthy population for coverage that will be less of draw on the system, as Hill (2014) suggest, “both the newly eligible and those eligible before the ACA but not enrolled, were healthier on several measures than pre-ACA enrollees.” Pa medicaid is only opened to Us citizens while TX medicaid is open to any legal immigrant or resident of Texas. Both states provide care based on federal guidelines including care of those who are in a low