Kentucky posed a stark contrast to trends seen in Tennessee: 425,000 Kentuckians, representing fully 10 percent of the population, gained coverage in the first year alone—even though the Medicaid expansion did not go into effect until a year later. According to an in-depth study published in Health Affairs, the percentages of the state’s low-income adults without insurance dropped from 40.2 percent to 12.4 percent as a result of expansion—one of the largest reductions in the country.
