More than 1.7 million people who have applied for Medicaid are still waiting for a decision on their eligibility.

And some have been waiting for as long as eight months.

More than half of those still waiting are in California while some live in states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs.

iStock_000014445371XSmallThe delays have been attributed to problems transferring data received on the federal health insurance exchange to state governments, state programs overwhelmed with volume, technical problems in the states, and other reasons.

Many of those who still await word on their application for Medicaid benefits undoubtedly live in communities served by private safety-net hospitals.

Learn more about this problem, including which states are experiencing the longest delays, what is being done about them, and how this problem affects access to care, in this Kaiser Health News article.