By Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News for USA Today
Republican lawmakers in Florida and Texas snubbed the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion for adults, but their states did broaden the program this year — for school-age children.
Those states were among 21 — including some big Democrat-led states, such as California — that were required to widen Medicaid eligibility for children between the ages of 6 and 18 by 2014. That little-known provision of the health law was one factor helping 1.5 million kids gain coverage in the state-federal health insurance program for the poor, according to a survey of a dozen states by Kaiser Health News.
While many of those kids were previously enrolled in other public programs, children are typically better off in Medicaid because it offers broader health benefits at lower cost to their families. The higher eligibility level was already in effect for children younger than 6.
