Medicaid Eligibility and Enrollment for People with Disabilities Under the Affordable Care Act

Medicaid is an important source of coverage for people with disabilities, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) makes several changes to Medicaid eligibility and enrollment rules, effective January 1, 2014, that impact this population. This issue paper provides a short summary of Medicaid eligibility and benefits for people with disabilities today and explains how these issues will be affected by health reform in light of CMS’s new regulations. Provisions of the new Exchange regulations are discussed briefly to the extent that they relate to Medicaid eligibility determinations for people with disabilities.