The new face of Medicaid may be underemployed millennials, but that may bode well for Medicaid's finances.
Young adults ages 19 to 34 account for more than half of those newly eligible for Medicaid, according to a new Urban Institute study.
Of the almost 10 million young adults elible for Medicaid under the ACA, about 20 percent of are be students, 42 percent are working and 18 percent are unemployed, and some of them are already using social services.
According to the Urban Institute study, 25 percent have children covered by CHIP and 28 percent live in a household with someone getting SNAP food benefits.
About 5.4 million currently uninsured young adults eligible for Medicaid live in states expanding coverage for those earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, and 4.3 million young people estimated to be eligible for Medicaid live in states that are not expanding eligibility under the Affordable Care Act.
While the idea of young people like graduate students getting Medicaid enrages some health reform critics, more young people in the program could ease state and federal budget burdens over the next few decades, with preventative care made available upstream.
Overall the 19 to 34 year-olds "will be a healthy population,"said Urban Institute researcher Lisa Dubay, who authored the study.
But, she added, there are a number of young people who are likely to end up working low wage jobs and living in poverty for most of their adult lives and they're also at high risk of developing multiple chronic health programs and possibly ending up with dual Medicaid and Medicare benefits.
In the states expanding Medicaid eligibility, most full-time minium wage earners and the long-term underemployed and unemployed will be able to get access to primary care, which could prevent or offsett the onset of diseases like diabetes in middle age, Dubay said.
In the short term, more generally healthy mellenials in Medicaid could help sustain new payment models like capitated contracts. And in the long term, if most of those beneficiares decide to get preventative care, it could also bode well for Medicare's finances as those populations age.