CMS releases profile of Medicaid beneficiaries

People aged 65 or more years accounted for 10.2%, or 9.6 million, of the 94 million people enrolled in Medicaid in 2023, according to a new profile of Medicaid beneficiaries released Friday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Care for people in this age group accounted for 21.5%, or $188.4 billion, of total Medicaid expenses of $877.2 billion in 2023. Average annual Medicaid expenditures per beneficiary for those aged 65 or more years was $19,674 that year.

Other highlights of the profile:

• Of the 8.3 million people aged 65 or more years enrolled in Medicaid in 2023, 61.2%, or 5.1 million, were female, and 38.8%, or 3.2 million, were male.
• Nine percent of beneficiaries aged 65 or more years lived in institutions such as nursing homes in 2023.
• The states with the highest percentage of Medicaid beneficiaries who were dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid in 2024 were Massachusetts, Maine and New York, at 15.1% to 20%.
• Fee-for-service long-term care expenses in the Medicaid and CHIP programs in 2024 amounted to $191 billion out of total Medicaid and CHIP expenditures of $977.4 billion.
• In the states, the percentage of adults aged 19 or more years enrolled in Medicaid as of July 2024 was highest in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Washington, DC, where enrollment was 20.1% to 30%. It was lowest in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Mississippi, Utah, Wyoming, where enrollment was 10% or less. In the remaining states, Medicaid enrollment among this age group was 10.1% to 20%.

Approximately 17% of assisted living community residents were Medicaid beneficiaries as of 2022, according to a 2024 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Almost half of assisted living communities surveyed in 2018 by the CDC were authorized or certified to participate in a state-federal Medicaid program, according to a 2023 report. The National Center for Assisted Living notes that “a small minority of state Medicaid programs do not cover services in assisted living.”