State Medicaid Profiles

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Nationally, Medicaid provides health insurance to a larger share of the population in rural areas than in urban areas. Both Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are also critical sources of income for rural health care providers and help contribute to economic development within these communities. While there are many resources on Medicaid and CHIP that provide important information to policymakers, advocates, researchers, and others, state-specific information on the characteristics of Medicaid and CHIP in rural areas is hard to find. The State Profiles of Medicaid and CHIP in Rural and Urban Areas on this web site were developed to address this information gap.

The State Profiles summarize data from a range of sources on Medicaid and CHIP with an emphasis on program characteristics relevant to rural areas. To obtain information on enrollment and expenditures in rural areas, individual state web sites were searched for administrative data by county and where available, data were presented aggregated by metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. Links to county-level data are provided when available. The Background Information and National Summary Tables documents contain select data for each state aggregated by subject into national tables. A complete description of the more detailed information contained in each State Profile can be found in the User’s Guide.