Medicaid name changes confuse the public: What it means for your health insurance coverage
You might have a decent idea of which state provides your health insurance coverage if you signed up for MaineCare or Medi-Cal.
But what if you enrolled in a plan under Healthy Connections? That's what South Carolina calls its Medicaid program.
Medicaid is a federal-state health insurance program for low-income families that provides health insurance to more than 1 in 5 Americans. President Donald Trump's tax cut and spending legislation will trim more than $900 billion in federal spending on Medicaid over the next decade. The law will leave 10 million Americans uninsured over the next decade, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Despite widespread media coverage of the law, which Trump dubbed the "Big Beautiful Bill," health advocates say millions of consumers who might be affected by Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts likely aren't aware of the scope of changes, which will be phased in over several years.
In fact, many might not be aware they are on Medicaid, experts said.
"Sometimes people who are on Medicaid don't even realize it's Medicaid because it has different names in different states," said Arika Sanchez, health care director at New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty.
New Mexico's Medicaid program insures 34% of the state's population − the nation's highest proportion of residents covered by the public health insurance program, according to a February 2025 report by the health policy nonprofit KFF.
New Mexico has tapped four private insurance companies to administer Medicaid coverage under a program the state calls Turquoise Care. It's one of 42 states that rely on private companies − called managed care − to administer one or more categories of Medicaid coverage, according to KFF.
Sanchez said consumers might be confused because "when they look at their insurance card in New Mexico, it will say Turquoise Care, not necessarily Medicaid."
Further complicating matters is consumers often get Medicaid coverage even though private insurers manage their benefits. Consumers might think they have a private-sector insurer when they are enrolled in a Medicaid plan administered by well-known insurance companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield or UnitedHealthcare.
The four Medicaid plans under Turquoise Care include Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico, Molina Healthcare of New Mexico, Presbyterian Health Plan and UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of New Mexico.
Some states have rebranded their programs so the name Medicaid doesn't appear on insurance cards or communications.
Arizona calls its program the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS, which is pronounced "access." California's Medicaid program is Medi-Cal.
Decision-makers often seek to identify names that are unique to their states, said Jennifer Tolbert, deputy director of the program on Medicaid and the uninsured for KFF.
Some states turn to university mascots or nicknames when branding their Medicaid programs. Oklahoma's program is Sooner Care. Wisconsin offers BadgerCare. Washington state dubs its Medicaid program Apple Health.
Medicaid rebranding motivated by stigma and politics
Many states rename Medicaid plans to avoid the stigma people might associate with a government-provided health program. The idea is to make it seem coverage isn't much different than what consumers would get through an employer-provided insurance plan, said Joshua McCrain, a University of Utah political science professor who co-authored the study.
For example, In 2024, researchers from Harvard, University of Utah and the insurance company Humana surveyed perceptions of more than 5,800 consumers who were asked about Medicaid names. When programs replaced Medicaid with a state-specific name, consumers were more likely to conclude they hadn't heard enough to say how they felt about the program.
The researchers said in the study that rebranding Medicaid with state-specific program names may "muddle understanding of the program as a government-provided benefit."
McCrain said some states also likely rebrand Medicaid plans for political purposes.
Former President Barack Obama's signature 2010 health-care law, the Affordable Care Act, gave states the option to expand Medicaid for low-income adults. All but 10 states have expanded Medicaid, but some Republican-led states did so on their own terms.
Under former Republican Gov. Mike Pence, Indiana called its Medicaid expansion the Healthy Indiana Plan, which required enrollees pay monthly premiums and manage health savings accounts. The former vice president during Trump's first term said it emphasized personal responsibility.
Several states followed Indiana by filing waivers with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that sought to implement work requirements for low-income, nondisabled adults who sought Medicaid coverage. The Biden administration blocked such waivers during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the work-or-volunteer mandate for Medicaid coverage is a pillar of Trump's tax cut and spending legislation.
Georgia, the only state currently with a Medicaid work requirement, grants low-income adults a chance at Medicaid under its Pathways to Coverage program. The program extends coverage to low-income, non-disabled adults who work at least 80 hours a month or qualify for exemptions such as being full-time students or volunteers.
McCrain, however, said it's unclear whether renaming Medicaid makes a difference in public perception.
When people learn Medicaid provides health care access to low-income Americans, they generally support the program, he said. But some political leaders, especially Republicans in conservative states, might find it useful to rebrand Medicaid when seeking to pass legislation.
"It could be the case, that (name change) had to be done in that political moment to get it passed," McCrain said.