The Modern Medicaid Alliance’s Medicaid Dashboard — first launched in September of 2018 — has become an essential resource for federal and state leaders looking for up-to-date information on how many people are covered by Medicaid in each state and how each state’s Medicaid program is structured.
The recently updated Medicaid Dashboard includes new polling showing that the COVID-19 crisis has reinforced the importance of Medicaid as a critical safety net for at-risk populations, and that a strong majority of Americans in every state want to ensure the program remains strong and stable for the millions who rely on it. In fact, 86% of Americans say it’s important to have a strong, sustainable Medicaid program in the U.S.
In addition to providing the latest, most comprehensive Medicaid enrollment research and polling, the Dashboard also provides state-specific reports for all 50 states plus the District of Columbia.
Advocacy organizations can use the Dashboard’s national and state-specific data about Medicaid in a variety of ways to educate policymakers and partners and engage with third parties. Below are some recommendations on ways to use the Dashboard data in your organization’s daily activities:
- Demonstrate the overwhelming support for Medicaid through advocacy tools and educational resources. The Medicaid Dashboard provides polling data at the national level, and all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, demonstrating Americans’ opinions toward Medicaid. For example, nearly 70% of people in Kentucky (68%) oppose cutting funding for Medicaid. We encourage partners to leverage these statistics in efforts to increase awareness of the broad support for the program, or to advocate for strengthening Medicaid.
- Advocate for specific policy changes by sharing with state chapters to compare their Medicaid programs to neighboring states. Because Medicaid programs differ from state to state, organizations can utilize the Medicaid Dashboard to quickly compare one state’s program to another in order to help advocate for their desired policy changes. For example, you might use the Dashboard information for Montana, showing the state’s expansion status and additional number of people covered under expansion, to help make the case for Medicaid expansion in neighboring South Dakota or Wyoming. We encourage partners to use the state-specific pages and “create report” function to compare state Medicaid programs and help advance their goals in a given state.
- Identify potential new partners based on population-specific data (e.g., children, people with disabilities, older adults) provided by the Dashboard. The Dashboard includes breakdowns of the types of populations served by Medicaid at the national and state levels. For example, 43% of all those covered by Medicaid in the U.S. are children, or 28% of all those covered by Medicaid in Pennsylvania are people with disabilities. We encourage partners to use the Dashboard’s population-specific data to identify opportunities for partnership with other groups that advocate for or work closely with a given population.
Visit the Medicaid Dashboard at data.modernmedicaid.org and check out the Dashboard polling infographic today!