DOES SAFETY NET ELIGIBILITY YIELD PARTICIPATION?

Millions of low-income people qualify for both Medicaid and SNAP, but the federal government doesn’t regularly assess how many of them actually receive both.  Medicaid and SNAP address the most basic needs of our poorest citizens, and health care and nutrition assistance likely produce more powerful results when provided together.  A new Urban Institute paper examining joint participation among eligible children and non-elderly adults in five states suggests there is substantial room for improvement. Researchers calculated joint participation rates for 2011 in Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, North Carolina, and South Carolina. They found significant gaps in joint enrollment: in four of the states, only about two-thirds of non-elderly adults and children who were eligible for both Medicaid and SNAP actually received both. 

Source: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 9/30/14, Eligibility vs. Participation; Urban Institute, 9/14, Eligibility vs. Participation II