Medicaid Expansion States See Significant Budget Savings and Revenue Gains

As states continue to look for new ways to balance their budgets, early results from states that have expanded Medicaid show significant state budget savings after just the first year of expansion. Twenty-six states have expanded Medicaid—this brief focuses on the budget impact in two states: Kentucky and Arkansas. Both states report expansion-related savings and Arkansas reports new revenues. When projected forward, these financial gains are likely to exceed expansion-related costs for years to come. These early savings point to Medicaid expansion paying for itself, at least through SFY 2021, while generating major gains in coverage and reducing the number of uninsured.