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CARSON CITY — Enrollment in Nevada’s Medicaid program has grown by a third during the past year, with more than half of the new enrollees becoming eligible under the federal health care reform law, state officials said Friday.

Figures released by the Department of Health and Human Services show Nevada’s Medicaid caseload was 434,819 people as of March 31, an increase of 33,000 from the month before and 117,635 over March 2013.

Included in that year-over-year increase are about 64,000 people who qualified for Medicaid for the first time as of Jan. 1, when Nevada expanded eligibility to include childless adults with an income of up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. For a single adult that amounts to about $16,000 a year.

States were given the option to increase eligibility for Medicaid under President Obama’s health care law.

Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican, agreed to the expansion to help more people gain access to health care in Nevada, a state that had an estimated uninsured population of 642,000 before the law took effect.

When the current fiscal year began July 1, Nevada had 320,000 enrolled in Medicaid.