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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Medicaid Enrollees

Cook County releases 1st snapshot of new Medicaid patients, By Peter Frost, June 2, 2014, Chicago Tribune: “New data released in May offer the first look at the health, habits and demographics of about 100,000 new enrollees in Cook County’s expanded Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act. The picture it paints is bleak. More than half the new patients covered by Cook County’s Medicaid expansion program haven’t seen a doctor in the past 12 months. Eighty-five percent of them are unable to obtain needed medications. Nearly one-fourth have spent time in a hospital in the past six months and an additional 1 in 5 are worried about finding a place to stay in the near future. They suffer from heart disease, high cholesterol. . .”