Expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act has been wildly successful in improving the fortunes of one particular group in California — just not the group Medicaid was intended to help.
A recent Kaiser Health News story reported that from 2014 (when the state expanded its Medicaid program under Obamacare) to 2016, Medicaid insurers made $5.4 billion in profits. During this same period, the massive expansion of Medi-Cal (the state's Medicaid program) saw its enrollment grow to one out of every three California residents. Some California Medicaid insurers' profit margins increased by 200 to 300 percent after the expansion.
