http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2015/08/28/michigan-the-path-to-medicaid-expansion-in-a-republican-led-state/
At a March 2015 conference sponsored by the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation, the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, and the University of Michigan School of Public Health, consumers, providers, employers, and state leaders reviewed the first-year experience of the ACA’s coverage expansions. While some described challenges, particularly in the small employer market, the Healthy Michigan Plan was almost uniformly praised as being clearly successful to date.
Healthy Michigan Plan enrollment has vastly exceeded expectations, surpassing the state’s first year projection in less than four months. As of August 3, 2015, 576,624 residents were enrolled. The majority of enrollees (nearly 500,000) had incomes below 100 percent FPL, more than 51 percent were women, and roughly 47 percent were between the ages of 19 and 34.
Operational issues with enrollment have been minimal and health plan participation has been high, with thirteen health plans serving the Healthy Michigan population in the first year. Moreover, the proportion of primary care practices willing to accept new Medicaid patients in Michigan has increased from 49 percent to 55 percent since the launch of the Healthy Michigan Plan — with median wait times for new appointments remaining less than two weeks.
Early figures suggest Healthy Michigan Plan enrollees are utilizing the program’s benefits and are connected to a primary care physician through their managed care plan enrollment. As of February 2015, over half of enrollees had visited a primary care physician and about 17 percent used preventive care services. Healthy Michigan Plan enrollees are also participating in the program’s health risk assessment component at more than twice the rate of enrollees in a typical private health insurance plan (14 percent compared to 6 percent, per state figures).