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Medicaid and Rural America

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Medicaid and Rural America
Center for Rural Affairs analyzes benefits of Medicaid in rural areas
Rural children increasingly reliant on public health insurance

LYONS, NE – Medicaid protects long-term care for millions of seniors, helps people with disabilities live independently and provides health coverage that ensures children can see a doctor when they get sick. The Center for Rural Affairs released a new health care report today, entitled – Medicaid and Rural America – that examines these and other vital roles Medicaid plays in rural areas.

“A variety of unique characteristics of rural communities make Medicaid crucial for rural people and rural places,” said Jon Bailey, Rural Research Director at the Center for Rural Affairs and author of the report.

“The demographics and health care infrastructure of rural America make Medicaid a vital source of insurance coverage, filling gaps in Medicare coverage and the availability of private insurance,” Bailey continued.

According to Bailey, rural poverty rates are generally higher. Rural residents have lower rates of employer-sponsored health insurance. And rural areas have a higher proportion of older persons in their total population.

Bailey’s report goes on to explain that about 65 percent of families with non-elderly Medicaid enrollees have at least one worker in the family, with nearly half having at least one full-time worker.

“Many perceive Medicaid as the classic ‘welfare’ program,” said Bailey. “That perception is simply not true.”

A full copy of the report can be viewed and downloaded at: http://files.cfra.org/pdf/Medicaid.pdf [2].

The Center for Rural Affairs report makes a detailed case that Medicaid is a critical piece of the rural health care system. The connections between rural areas and Medicaid include:

In the report, Bailey also provides evidence that Medicaid is also vital to the rural health care infrastructure and to rural communities. Health care providers, especially those who serve large percentages of Medicaid patients, rely on Medicaid payments to cover the costs of treating those patients. Federal and state Medicaid dollars contribute to rural economic development by generating health care jobs and other related businesses and services.

“In many respects, Medicaid has become a rural program,” explained Bailey.

The most recent data on Medicaid coverage show that 16 percent of rural residents had Medicaid coverage in the past year, compared to 13 percent of urban residents. And a recent analysis of those eligible for Medicaid from state data affirms the importance of Medicaid to rural people.

The data from 35 states and the District of Columbia shows that more rural than urban residents are eligible for Medicaid in 31 states. (New Jersey and the District of Columbia, have no rural counties). In 13 states the rural-urban variation was five percentage points higher for the rural population.

“The importance of Medicaid to certain populations – children, low-income disabled, low-income elderly and pregnant women – in rural America is especially striking,” Bailey concluded.