NJ Medicaid numbers show backlog – The Star-Ledger

The backlog that applicants to the state’s expanded Medicaid program have complained about showed up in the latest enrollment numbers released by Obamacare officials.

Expansion of the program to singles and childless couples has been a popular component of the Affordable Care Act in New Jersey. Data released Friday show new applications during January and February alone totaled just over 30,000.

However, only 4,878 of those – or just one out of every six — made it all the way through the process.

Nationally, Medicaid enrollment is up 8 percent. In New Jersey, it is up by 6 percent. At the end of February, total enrollment was 1,361,513 people.

Some of the people who applied for Medicaid have complained they haven’t received their proof-of-insurance cards and sometimes learn neither the state nor the federal government has a record of their enrollment.

New Jersey’s Medicaid program is called NJ FamilyCare. Officials there said the initial backlog was caused by the unusable data sent to them by the federal government. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius confirmed that in early February, and indicated at the time that the technical problem would be solved in a matter of days.

New Jersey is one of only three states – joining Arizona and North Dakota – that chose to expand Medicaid within their states, yet rely on the federal website to do the enrolling. (The more common approaches were for states to expand Medicaid and set up their own websites, or decide they wanted neither to expand Medicaid nor set up a website.)

Transferring enrollment data from healthcare.gov to New Jersey has been balky at best. NJ FamilyCare’s website assures applicants their enrollment will be retroactive to Jan. 1, but that has been little solace to applicants, who say they can’t risk going to a doctor if it’s not going to be covered.