This symposium highlights three distinct data-driven strategies for targeting outreach in Minnesota to individuals eligible for Medicaid coverage or subsidies under the ACA. Presenters will include researchers from the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) within the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health and the session will be convened by a policy expert with programmatic outreach experience. One presentation will provide a broad overview of the characteristics of Minnesota’s uninsured and those most likely eligible for coverage under the ACA’s newly expanded health reform categories. Another presentation will profile a select group of current high risk pool enrollees who may enter the individual health insurance coverage market in 2014. Our final presentation will highlight findings from a unique state outreach program created in 2008 to increase access to care for vulnerable populations.

A number of states and the District of Columbia currently administer health coverage programs for low-income uninsured individuals who either exceed maximum Medicaid income eligibility thresholds or who are not categoricallly eligible for the Medicaid program, such as childless adults.  The majority of individuals currently covered through these programs will be eligible for other coverage pursuant to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This issue brief, from SHARE grantee Theresa Sachs and her research team at Health Management Associates, reviews the objectives and structure of 11 health coverage programs in six states and documents the legal, technical, and policy issues that states are already addressing, or need to address, as they review options for transitioning program enrollees to new coverage options under the ACA.  The authors also present possibilities for new uses of state dollars freed up by the infusion of federal funds in 2014.