By Kiera Peoples and Katherine Gallagher Robbins
Medicaid is a critical lifeline for women veterans, providing access to health care that supports their well-being after service. Despite their contributions to the nation, many women veterans face significant barriers to accessing affordable health coverage, which Medicaid helps to bridge. New National Partnership research shows that Medicaid plays an especially vital role for women veterans with disabilities, mothers and veterans of color. Yet, Congressional Republicans’ plan to slash Medicaid places this essential health coverage for women veterans at risk.
New National Partnership for Women & Families analysis shows that among women veterans aged 19-64:
- Medicaid covers more than 140,000 women veterans.
- Nearly 1 in 9 women veterans nationwide rely on Medicaid for health coverage.
- Among those enrolled, nearly 4 in 10 women veterans rely solely on Medicaid for their health care.
- Disabled women veterans have the highest need of any group of women veterans, with more than 1 in 5 enrolled in Medicaid coverage.
- Nearly 54,000 women veteran moms (12.4 percent) are insured through Medicaid.
- Women veterans of color are 25 percent more likely to be covered by Medicaid than their white counterparts (12.4 percent vs. 9.9 percent).
- Nearly 1 in 5 American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) women veterans (18.6 percent) rely on Medicaid, the highest rate among all racial and ethnic groups.
- More than 1 in 7 multiracial women veterans are covered by Medicaid.
- 1 in 8 Latina veterans are covered by Medicaid.
- Nearly 1 in 8 Black women veterans are covered by Medicaid.
- Nearly 1 in 7 rural women veterans rely on Medicaid for health care.
- Women veterans in Medicaid expansion states are 53 percent more likely to have Medicaid coverage compared to those in non-expansion states (12.4 percent vs. 8.1 percent).
- The states with the largest share of women veterans insured by Medicaid are all states that have expanded coverage: New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Louisiana, Michigan, West Virginia, New Mexico and Kentucky. In each of these states, more than 1 out of every 6 women veterans is covered by Medicaid.
Medicaid serves as a vital safety net for women veterans who might otherwise fall through gaps in the private insurance market or have inadequate coverage from the Veterans’ Affairs medical system or under TRICARE. Cuts to Medicaid will disproportionately harm disabled women veterans and those of color – especially Native, multiracial, Latina and Black women veterans – worsening existing health disparities. Protecting Medicaid is essential to honoring women veterans’ service and ensuring adequate access to health care nationwide.
Methods note: This analysis uses the 2019-2023 American Community Survey accessed via IPUMS USA. We use a five-year dataset to have a sufficient sample size to analyze state-level data when possible. Racial categories in this analysis exclude women who identify as Latina and/or Hispanic, who are analyzed separately. People are identified as having a disability in this analysis if they responded that they have difficulty in one or more of the following realms: vision, hearing, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care, and independent living. People may have multiple disabilities. This is a limited definition of disability that excludes a portion of disabled people and differs from veterans with service-connected disabilities. For more information on how disability is measured in the American Community Survey please see the U.S. Census Bureau’s report How Disability Data are Collected from The American Community Survey. This analysis defines “mother” as having at least one own child (including step, adopted, or biological) under the age of 18 in the household. Due to data limitations, there are mothers who are not included in this definition, including those who have non-resident or older children or those whose children have passed away. Rural veterans are defined as those living outside of a metropolitan area. As of the publication of this analysis, nonexpansion states include: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming. A small number of states expanded Medicaid between 2019 and 2023 when the data for the analysis were collected. We include those states in our expansion population and acknowledge this is likely a conservative estimate of the difference of insurance coverage between expansion and nonexpansion states.
The authors are grateful to Lorena Bonet Velazquez, Sarah Coombs, Rolonda Donelson and Mettabel Law for their review and thoughtful comments.
