LANSING – The state is just 51 persons short of 450,000 people having signed up for the Healthy Michigan Medicaid expanded enrollment, meaning the state could actually hit the total number of people it had ever expected to enroll by early December.
On Monday, the Department of Community Health said 449,949 people had enrolled in the program.
When the state launched the program on April 1 it had estimated a total of 470,000 would have enrolled sometime in 2015.
The state hit its total goal for 2014 enrollees, more than 300,000, in July.
With approximately 1,000 people or more a day enrolling, that means the program could hit is early total estimated number by early December.
Earlier this year, officials in DCH said they weren’t making a new estimate on total enrollees and would just see how many people end up enrolling.
The program proved one of the most controversial of 2013 to enact, with critics trying to stop it as a tie to the federal Affordable Care Act. The program is still disdained by many conservatives.
The program allows persons with incomes of up to 133 percent of the federal poverty limit, which varies by family size, to sign up for Medicaid health care benefits.
Wayne County has the highest number of residents enrolled, with 123,000 signed up (more than 66,000 of those are Detroit residents). Macomb County has the second-highest number of residents enrolled with more than 34,500.
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