According to Mass Medicaid Policy Institute’s report, “A Primer on the Dual Eligible Population in Massachusetts,” over the past five years, MassHealth dual eligible membership, which currently stands at 312,000 residents, has seen growth driven by its older population.

Of the more than 1.8 million people enrolled in MassHealth, Massachusetts’ Medicaid program, one in five are dually eligible and receive health care coverage through two distinct payers – Medicare and MassHealth.

Slightly under half (148,000) are non-elderly adults with disabilities (including a few thousand children); while slightly over half are seniors (164,000). Between 2015 and 2019, MassHealth’s dual eligible population increased by more than 20,000 people (7 percent).
Growth was driven by those age 65 and over, who increased in number by 19,000 (13 percent). Growth in the number of older dual eligible members is likely a byproduct of
Massachusetts’ expanding senior population, which grew by more than 120,000 individuals (12 percent) over the same five-year period, most aging into Medicare.

For more information and data on the Massachusetts dual eligible population, including an illustrative “member profiles” section, visit the report webpage here.