States’ Policies on Health Care Exclude Some of the Poorest

[unhappycamper]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/25/us/states-policies-on-health-care-exclude-poorest.html?ref=us

States’ Policies on Health Care Exclude Some of the Poorest
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: May 24, 2013

WASHINGTON — The refusal by about half the states to expand Medicaid will leave millions of poor people ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance under President Obama’s health care law even as many others with higher incomes receive federal subsidies to buy insurance.

Starting next month, the administration and its allies will conduct a nationwide campaign encouraging Americans to take advantage of new high-quality affordable insurance options. But those options will be unavailable to some of the neediest people in states like Texas, Florida, Kansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia, which are refusing to expand Medicaid.

More than half of all people without health insurance live in states that are not planning to expand Medicaid.

People in those states who have incomes from the poverty level up to four times that amount ($11,490 to $45,960 a year for an individual) can get federal tax credits to subsidize the purchase of private health insurance. But many people below the poverty line will be unable to get tax credits, Medicaid or other help with health insurance.



unhappycamper comment:

[lhooq]

1. And I am one of them

I don't consider myself poor, but I do live off of savings, and live frugally. Hence, my adjusted gross income on my form 1040 was way below the $12k poverty cutoff for a single, head of household. I am fortunate to be in good health. I've seen a doctor exactly once since 2009.

So what do you think will happen? The poor and the sick will skimp on primary care allowing their hypertension or diabetes to get progressively worse. Eventually, some catastrophic event will happen, a heart attack for instance, and they will end up in the ER. As a consequence, they'll lose physical capability and need additional care. They may have no other resort but to apply for SSDI. Expect lots of costs, lots of cost shifting, and in the end we are all going to pay.

(We already are paying. Here in Florida, our federal taxes that help fund the Medicaid expansion won't be returning to this state. Californians -- you ought to thank us Floridians for our generosity!)

I guess the GOP believes they've the got the secret in how to win at the game of cost shifting musical chairs.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. This is just criminal...

At least we have Alan Grayson to speak for us...