Medicaid Coverage in Metro and Small Town/Rural Counties, 2023

Click on a state below to view rates of Medicaid coverage in Metro and Small Town/Rural counties. Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New…

January 14, 2025

Blog

Medicaid’s Role in Rural Areas Has Grown: Families Have Much at Stake in the Unwinding

In 2017 we published our first report examining the role of Medicaid in rural areas. We’ve updated the data a few times and our newest look is based on Medicaid coverage in 2020-2021. The data underscores the outsize importance of Medicaid as a source of health insurance coverage in rural areas and small towns –…

August 17, 2023

By

Joan Alker

Research & Reports

Medicaid’s Coverage Role in Small Towns and Rural Areas

Medicaid’s vital role as an insurer for low-income families, people with disabilities and chronic health conditions, and individuals in need of long-term services and supports in the nation’s health care system has continued to grow over the past decade. According to federal administrative enrollment data, one-quarter of all residents of the United States and more…

August 17, 2023

By

Aubrianna Osorio

,

Joan Alker

and

Edwin Park

Blog

New Interactive Maps Show Importance of Medicaid Coverage to Children and Families in Rural Counties and Small Towns

Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, with data from the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Rural Health Research Center, has examined the role Medicaid plays in health insurance coverage in rural areas, including how state Medicaid expansions helped reduce uninsurance, as part of our rural health policy project launched in 2017. Now we have…

May 23, 2023

By

Joan Alker

and

Aubrianna Osorio

Blog

Mapping the Barriers to Renewing Medicaid Coverage for Rural Arizonans When Continuous Coverage Ends

By Zaida Dedolph Piecoro and Bryna Koch Currently, half of those at risk of coverage loss at the end of the public health emergency (PHE) in Arizona are children under 19. Like many others, we at Children’s Action Alliance and our partners at the University of Arizona, Arizona Center for Rural Health are strategizing to…

November 30, 2022

By

Guest

Blog

New Georgetown CHIR Case Study Report Examines Policies to Expand Primary Care Access in Rural New Mexico

By Maanasa Kona, Jalisa Clark, Megan Houston, and Emma Walsh-Alker with the Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms Primary care is a critical tool to prevent illness and death and to improve the equitable distribution of health care in populations. However, access to this important source of care is lacking, especially for many underserved…

June 16, 2022

Blog

Report Finds Medicaid Expansion Has Made Huge Impact in Montana, Especially in Rural Areas

The Montana Healthcare Foundation hired consulting firm Manatt Health to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the effects of the Montana legislature’s expansion of the Medicaid program. This follows up the foundation’s 2021 report on Montana’s Medicaid program and Medicaid expansion. Combined, these reports lay out the background of Medicaid in Montana and the program’s reach,…

May 3, 2022

By

Adam Searing

Blog

New Report Underscores Urgent Need for Better Prenatal Health Care in Rural Areas

Earlier this summer, we called attention to the challenges that women in rural communities face during pregnancy and the postpartum period, and new research from Child Trends shows those challenges and health disparities extend to their young children as well. “Health Care Access for Infants and Toddlers in Rural Areas” found that rural infant and…

September 9, 2020

By

Ema Bargeron

and

Adam Searing

Media Coverage

For Rural Hospitals, Medicaid Expansion Acts As Shot In The Arm

KOSU By: Seth Bodine Eight rural hospitals in Oklahoma have closed in the last decade, the third highest rate of rural hospital closures in the country. But, the recent vote to expand Medicaid could provide rural hospitals with a much needed financial boost… Joan Alker, a research professor at Georgetown University who studies healthcare policy,…

July 21, 2020

By

News Article

Blog

Rural Disparities, Racial Disparities, and Maternal Health Crisis Call Out for Solutions

Maternal health access and care were already in crisis before COVID-19, and the pandemic has further laid bare the racial and geographic disparities experienced by pregnant women and new mothers across the country. Last month we submitted comments in response to CMS’s request for information on improving access and quality of maternal health in rural…

June 12, 2020

By

Maggie Clark

Blog

Expanding Medicaid Would Help Keep Rural Hospitals Open in 14 Non-Expansion States

I’ve written before about how America’s rural hospitals are in crisis – and the 14 states that still are refusing to expand Medicaid are contributing to financial woes of these institutions. The coronavirus pandemic has pushed these rural providers to the brink. There is stress throughout the health system with even major hospitals in urban…

May 12, 2020

By

Adam Searing

Blog

Solution to Maternal Health Crisis Must Center on Medicaid

Earlier this month, CCF submitted comments to the Senate Finance Committee with recommendations to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity and help mothers and babies thrive together. At the heart of our comments was this: Medicaid must be at the center of any efforts to solve to this crisis. Here’s why. Medicaid paid for nearly half…

April 13, 2020

By

Maggie Clark

Blog

South Carolina Becomes First State to Impose Harmful Work Requirements Primarily on Poor Parents

I had held out a little sliver of hope that the Trump Administration would not cross this line but today those hopes were extinguished when CMS Administrator Verma traveled to South Carolina to personally deliver the news to South Carolina Governor McMaster that his state would be the first in the nation to apply a…

December 12, 2019

By

Joan Alker

Blog

This Thanksgiving, Idahoans are Extremely Thankful for Medicaid Expansion

“I just received my acceptance letter that said I was approved for Medicaid! I’m so grateful for everything you have done for my family. You’re amazing, much love and many blessings…” Anita S. “My coverage will start January 1, 2020 and now hoping to get to be able to work again where the pain has…

November 22, 2019

By

Guest

Blog

Medicaid Expansion Proves Once Again to be Popular with Voters/Work Reporting Requirements are Not

Health care was one of the top issues on the minds of voters in Kentucky and Virginia last night and they voted in favor of Democrats who support a clean Medicaid expansion and against Medicaid work requirements – a signature issue for CMS Administrator Seema Verma. Kentucky was an early adopter of the Affordable Care…

November 6, 2019

By

Joan Alker

Blog

Medicaid Expansion Debate: A New Phase

Across the states, moving towards an election year typically means a retreat from policymakers wanting to take on major issues of interest to their constituents for fear of offending one side or the other. In an era of increasing “constant campaigns” rather than actual governance, this can mean even more legislative paralysis. But health care…

October 11, 2019

By

Adam Searing

Blog

Healthy Schools Campaign Webinar Looks at Importance of Medicaid to Student Success

Think fast: What the third largest stream of federal funding flowing into public schools? Since this is Say Ahhh!, you’re probably guessing Medicaid, and you’d be right. School districts across the country receive an estimated $4.5 billion in federal Medicaid dollars every year. That’s less than 1 percent of federal Medicaid spending, but in terms…

October 11, 2019

By

Phyllis Jordan

Blog

CMS Guidance Spotlights Ways Medicaid Can Support Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Services in Schools

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently released a Joint Informational Bulletin that offers a helpful roadmap to states and schools on the ways certain Medicaid authorities can help support school-based mental health and substance use disorder services for children and adolescents. As…

July 22, 2019

By

Candace Webb

Blog

Is There Really A Question? Intervenor States Have Clear Interest in Defending the Affordable Care Act

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has asked the parties in Texas v. United States to file supplemental briefings on the issue of whether the defendant states attorneys generals and the U.S. House of Representatives have standing to appeal. Standing is a legal term that means a party has a right to bring a lawsuit,…

July 8, 2019

By

Dania Palanker

and

Edwin Park

Blog

Medicaid Block Grants: Questions State Leaders Should Ask

CMS Administrator Seema Verma, the top federal Medicaid official, has been encouraging states to be the first on the block to block grant their Medicaid programs. Some states are beginning to respond. Late last month Tennessee’s Governor Bill Lee signed legislation directing him to submit a proposal for a Medicaid block grant to the federal…

June 11, 2019

By

Andy Schneider

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