In GOP Convention’s Shadow, Obamacare Is Paying Big Dividends

[applegrove]

In GOP Convention’s Shadow, Obamacare Is Paying Big Dividends

by Jonathon Cohn at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obamacare-medicaid-expansion-ohio_us_578fd497e4b0bdddc4d2d8c5

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For them, the Affordable Care Act isn’t an ideological abstraction, to be loved or hated for what it represents. It’s a part of their daily lives, a program that has dramatically changed the way they conduct business. And they say it’s been a godsend.

The main reason is the part of Obamacare that’s been most controversial in Ohio: the expansion of Medicaid eligibility. Republican Gov. John Kasich exercised that option over the strong objections of conservative activists and even his own Republican legislature.

Before the Affordable Care Act became law, the Medicaid program in Ohio looked like the Medicaid program in most other states back then. It was available only to certain categories of poor people, like children and pregnant women. Today, with the law in place, states receive generous federal support if they choose to drop the old restrictions and make Medicaid available to basically everybody in a household where the income falls below 133 percent of the poverty line, or $26,313 for a family of three.

To the surprise of many, Kasich made a passionate moral case for taking up the federal government’s offer, arguing that the state had an obligation to help those in need. He overcame the final political and legal hurdles in 2013, allowing enrollment in the expanded program to begin the following January.


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