BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's Medicaid expansion has reached a new milestone, with more than 400,000 people enrolled for health services through the government-financed program started in July.

The Department of Health announced the latest figures Thursday, saying the program is driving down Louisiana's uninsured rate. The agency says more than 58,700 of Medicaid expansion enrollees have received at least one preventive care visit with a health provider.

Enrollment in the Medicaid expansion tops estimates used in the state budget. The health department intends to ask lawmakers to add more federal spending authority into the budget to pay for the additional people.

The federal government is picking up most of the cost of the expansion program.

But the program could be threatened, as Congress looks to dismantle the federal law that authorized Medicaid expansion.