Nearly 350K more Arizonans get Medicaid under expansion

PHOENIX (AP) - Nearly 350,000 more Arizonans are covered through the state's Medicaid health insurance plan because of a 2013 law that expanded the program.

Those covered include more than 282,000 childless adults who were previously covered under an optional plan that was frozen during the Great Recession. The other 65,000 are adults who earn between 100 percent and 138 percent of the federal poverty line.

The expansion is actually saving Arizona money, because by unfreezing the optional population, the state got a boost in matching funds provided by the federal government. That boost to the "restoration" group was more than enough to cover the costs of the second group.

Arizona's additional costs for covering all the groups are paid by a hospital assessment that is being challenged in court.