Medicaid/SoonerCare

Medicaid is a public insurance program that provides health coverage to low-income families and individuals, including children, parents, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities. The program, which was created by Congress in 1965 as Title XIX of the Social Security Act, is operated by the states and funded jointly by the federal government and the states.

In Oklahoma, the Medicaid program is known as SoonerCare and is operated primarily by the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. In FY 2022, the Medicaid program served just under 1.3 million individuals at some point over the course of the year, a significant (25 percent) increase compared to FY 2021 due primarily to the voter’s approval of Medicaid expansion that took effect in June 2021. As of August 2023, SoonerCare’s total monthly enrollment was 1,353,296 people. Of these, just over half (51percent) were low-income children 18 years and under.

Oklahoma’s total Medicaid spending was $7.82 billion in FY 2022, with the federal government accounting for $5.98 billion (76.5 percent) of that amount. The federal matching rate (FMAP) for most expenses was 79.5 percent in FY 2022.