Several states experiment with putting Medicaid funds toward food

When Medicaid came into existence in 1965, it was meant to help people on limited incomes pay for health care. Now, what's considered health care may be evolving to include food.

A handful of states have received waivers from the federal government allowing them to use Medicaid funding to help pay for things like groceries or nutrition counseling. In a way, some doctors are following the phrase "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" by actually prescribing apples.

Hilary Seligman, a primary care physician and a professor of medicine at UCSF said if she sees a patient who's likely to develop diabetes, "I am easily able to prescribe him a medicine that will help prevent him from developing diabetes over the next ten years."

But Seligman studies food as a form of medical intervention and said what we eat can be just as important as medication. Now, several states are piloting the use of Medicaid funds for things like medically tailored meals.

"These are health-related social needs," said Madeline Guth, a Senior Policy Analyst at KFF. "The individual must have a documented medical need for the service."

Some people say that is not Medicaid's job and that programs like SNAP already exist to meet this need.

"This is something outside the scope of Medicaid," said Gary Alexander with the Paragon Health Institute, a think tank co-founded by former Trump administration economic advisor Brian Blase and others. "And really, the federal government has a robust food program," said Alexander.

Some states are also experimenting with using Medicaid funds to help people get access to other necessities like housing.