Medi-Cal after welfare reform: enrollment among former welfare recipients.

Recent studies have concluded that Medicaid enrollment fell over the past several years, both nationally and in California, for people leaving cash welfare. This ostensible decline occurred despite expansions to Medicaid eligibility and increases in outreach efforts designed to encourage people to continue using Medicaid after leaving welfare. Some of the ostensible decline in enrollment may have been the result of the recent period of economic prosperity, in which some former welfare recipients were able to obtain private health insurance. However, many observers are concerned that welfare reform, which occurred at roughly the same time, may have also contributed to declines in enrollment among people leaving cash welfare.