The bad economy, the eligibility controls of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, and state controlled Aid to Families with Dependent Children payment standards had different aggregate effects for different Medicaid eligibility groups between 1979 and 1983. Increases in the number of children and young women covered by Medicaid did not keep pace with increases in the number of children and young women in poverty: the proportion of poor children on Medicaid fell from 49 to 47 percent; the proportion of near-poor children on Medicaid fell from 18 to 10 percent. For young women in poverty the possibility of being on Medicare declined from 46 to 41 percent; for near-poor young women it fell from 19 to 9 percent. The number of elderly Medicare recipients declined sharply, although the likelihood of a noninstitutionalized very elderly women in poverty being enrolled in Medicaid increased slightly. This state of affairs has particular ramifications for the 24 percent of all children living in poverty and for the relatively large poverty population in the South. Data, from the March 1980 and 1984 Current Population Surveys, are presented on six tables. A short list of references is included. (BJV)