Think Progress: Meet The People Whose Lives Have Been Transformed By Medicaid Expansion :-)

[Omaha Steve]

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/10/16/3577076/americans-gaining-medicaid-expansion/


BY TARA CULP-RESSLER POSTED ON OCTOBER 16, 2014 AT 8:46 AM UPDATED: OCTOBER 16, 2014 AT 9:01 AM

Marc Sigoloff hopes he gets a chance to thank President Obama in person one day. “I really do believe that he saved my life with what he did,” he says.

Fifty eight-year-old Sigoloff, a freelance writer who lives in Illinois, was surprised when he got a notice in the mail last year telling him he was eligible for public insurance coverage. When first he signed up for food stamps, he was told that he didn’t qualify. But after Illinois lawmakers accepted the health care law’s optional Medicaid expansion, Sigoloff was one of the estimated 468,000 low-income residents who gained access to coverage this year.

One of the first things he did was go to the doctor. He knew he had issues with high blood pressure that he had been neglecting during the 11 years that he hadn’t gone to regular check-ups. But he didn’t expect to discover that he also had a brain tumor.

Sigoloff was referred to a neurosurgeon and received radiation treatment. So far, everything seems to be going well. “I’ve been pretty lucky. It turned out my tumor wasn’t cancer,” he said in an interview with ThinkProgress. He’ll have a follow-up MRI in December. For the first time in years, he’s also managing chronic conditions like diabetes and high cholesterol.
“I always had a feeling I was a walking time bomb, and it turned out I was right,” Sigoloff said. “If it hadn’t been for gaining insurance and being able to go to the doctor, I might not be here.”

MUCH MORE at link.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. I can't say my life has been 'transformed'

but I have had a lot more peace of mind knowing that if I did feel the need for medical care, I've at least got medicaid there at the moment, and in the last 7 or 8 months since I became eligible as a result of the expansion.

[yeoman6987]

2. Have we gotten to the bottom

Of the Medicaid in ACA if they do take away estates when a person passes away? There has been some discussion on it but not a yes or no answer. I would hope no but I believe it may be yes.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. No idea here. Last I heard, it was mainly being talked about in California specifically

where the Dem governor had vetoed a bill that would have stopped such a practice there.