Michigan's Medicaid expansion seen as model for others

The initial success of Michigan's Medicaid expansion could be useful to other states considering their own plans under the Affordable Care Act, according to a report by a team of University of Michigan Medical School researchers.

The analysis of data from the Healthy Michigan Plan, which extends health care benefits to poor and low-income residents, was released Wednesday and will appear Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Michigan rolled out its plan as much as three months later than some states, which allowed residents to find out more about what it offered and how to sign up. Michigan also used networks of organizations to publicize the plan and hired a company to take calls from potential applicants.

By that time, public awareness was high and signups came quickly, the University of Michigan researchers said.

"The rapid enrollment demonstrates both the ability of the state to launch the program effectively, and the pent-up demand for insurance among low-income adults in Michigan," said Dr. John Ayanian, team leader and director of the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

The report notes that nearly 328,000 Michigan residents signed up for the plan within 100 days after it launched in April. That number surpassed the plan's first-year goal of 322,000. More than 400,000 were enrolled through September.

Nearly 80% of the people enrolled in the first 100 days of Michigan's Medicaid expansion plan had not been enrolled in other state health programs for the poor.

And some wasted little time in using the plan. More than a third of those who enrolled in April or May had used their health insurance to visit a doctor by the end of July, according to the report.

"For other states that more recently decided to expand Medicaid or are still considering this option, our initial analysis demonstrates that with appropriate planning expansion can go smoothly," said Ayanian. "A lot of low-income adults stand to benefit, so we need to look fully at expansion's impact in every state where it's occurring, and the impact in states that choose not to expand."