Mapping the landscape of state Medicaid policy

Federal changes in Medicaid policy are the subject of significant national attention and debate. In contrast, state-level Medicaid policies are more of a black box: difficult to keep track of and much less salient. These disparate attention and information contexts obscure the important ways that federal and state Medicaid policies compare.

We present original policy data that identify nearly 4000 proposed state Medicaid bills from 2018 to 2022.

We show that the recent and ongoing federal emphases on reducing Medicaid expenditures are misaligned with state policy efforts. Moreover, although current federal policy changes have openly eschewed a focus on equity, we find that state-level policies with an explicit emphasis on equity fare equally well (in terms of passage) as those without such an emphasis. Far from cutting their programs, states have consistently expanded access to Medicaid. When state Medicaid policy focuses on equity, it remains politically feasible.

Altogether, we find that many state Medicaid programs innovate and expand in attempts to offer vital services to their constituents. In an era of federal policy retrenchment, this raises concerns about states' capacity to continue such efforts.