A record 70.4 million people were enrolled in the Medicaid health care program for the poor in fiscal year 2011, according to government figures provided to CNSNews.com.
That figure equals about 22 percent of the population, which means there was one person on Medicaid for every 5 Americans in 2011.
The record number of Medicaid enrollees in 2011 – the most recent year for which figures are available – is a count of all persons enrolled in Medicaid for any part of that year, providing the fullest and most accurate count of the size of the entitlement program. (The federal fiscal year in 2011 ran from Oct. 1, 2010 to Sept. 30, 2011.)