In the Federal Priorities Database, NPP hosts state-by-state data on federal spending and social and economic indicators, including the unemployment rate and people served by the Medicaid program. This graph makes use of related data to show how unemployment and Medicaid enrollment rose together following the start of the recession in 2007.

Unemployment rose sharply following the start of the Great Recession in 2007. At the same time, enrollment in Medicaid increased as Americans who were hard-hit in the economic downturn qualified for the health insurance program for low-income Americans. Medicaid enrollment rose from 16.6 percent of the under-65 population in 2007 to 20.6 percent in 2010.

Max-Edouard Mondesir is a summer research associate at National Priorities Project. He hails from Haiti and holds a master's degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.