Millions of Poor Are Left Uncovered by Health Law

[boutons_deux]

Because they live in states largely controlled by Republicans that have declined to participate in a vast expansion of Medicaid, the medical insurance program for the poor, they are among the eight million Americans who are impoverished, uninsured and ineligible for help. The federal government will pay for the expansion through 2016 and no less than 90 percent of costs in later years.

Those excluded will be stranded without insurance, stuck between people with slightly higher incomes who will qualify for federal subsidies on the new health exchanges that went live this week, and those who are poor enough to qualify for Medicaid in its current form, which has income ceilings as low as $11 a day in some states.

People shopping for insurance on the health exchanges are already discovering this bitter twist.

“How can somebody in poverty not be eligible for subsidies?” an unemployed health care worker in Virginia asked through tears.

The 26 states that have rejected the Medicaid expansion are home to about half of the country’s population, but about 68 percent of poor, uninsured blacks and single mothers. About 60 percent of the country’s uninsured working poor are in those states. Among those excluded are about 435,000 cashiers, 341,000 cooks and 253,000 nurses’ aides.


“The irony is that these states that are rejecting Medicaid expansion — many of them Southern — are the very places where the concentration of poverty and lack of health insurance are the most acute,”

Poor people excluded from the Medicaid expansion will not be subject to fines for lacking coverage. In all, about 14 million eligible Americans are uninsured and living in poverty,

Willie Charles Carter, an unemployed 53-year-old whose most recent job was as a maintenance worker at a public school, has had problems with his leg since surgery last year.

His income is below Mississippi’s ceiling for Medicaid — which is about $3,000 a year — but he has no dependent children, so he does not qualify. And his income is too low to make him eligible for subsidies on the federal health exchange.

“You got to be almost dead before you can get Medicaid in Mississippi,”

Blacks are disproportionately affected, largely because more of them are poor and living in Southern states. In all, 6 out of 10 blacks live in the states not expanding Medicaid. In Mississippi, 56 percent of all poor and uninsured adults are black, though they account for just 38 percent of the population.

Gladys Arbila, a housekeeper in Houston who earns $17,000 a year and supports two children, is under the poverty line and therefore not eligible for new subsidies. But she makes too much to qualify for Medicaid under the state’s rules. She recently spent 36 hours waiting in the emergency room for a searing pain in her back.

“We came to this country, and we are legal and we work really hard,” said Ms. Arbila, 45, who immigrated to the United States 12 years ago, and whose son is a soldier in Afghanistan. “Why we don’t have the same opportunities as the others?”

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/10/03...?from=homepage

[boutons_deux]

Another Repug ideological asshole governor getting trashed for not helping his poor citizens

After Facing Opposition From His Own Party, GOP Governor May Expand Medicaid By Executive Order

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) has long been a proponent of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. Now, hamstrung by reticent state lawmakers in his own party, Kasich may take things into his own hands and expand the program through executive order.

There have been persistent rumors that Kasich may take this course of action. On Wednesday, Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols told reporters, “We continue to explore all our options and just want to get this done.”

Expanding Medicaid is projected to cut Ohio’s uninsurance rate by almost 61 percent while extending health insurance to 275,000 low-income Ohioans. The expansion would be fully funded by the federal government for the first three years, after which it would continue to cover 90 percent of the tab. Nonetheless, many Republicans have resisted it because they do not want to appear to be cooperating with the federal health reform law.

State lawmakers agree that an executive order is a viable option for Kasich. “The governor, I think, has the authority to do that,” said Ohio Senate President Keith Faber (R) in an interview with the Columbus Dispatch. “It’s certainly within his prerogative. I’m a defender of legislative rights, and I would think the better solution would be a legislative option, but the governor does have that authority.”

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013...ecutive-order/

[Jacob1983]

Get off the internet and start donating money and your time. ing about it and blaming evil Republicans will not help poor people.

[boutons_deux]

Get off the internet and start donating money and your time. ing about it and blaming evil Republicans will not help poor people.

GFY

those medicaid $100Bs are from taxpayers like me, so I am helping.

[Jacob1983]

Pussying out as usual.

[TDMVPDPOY]

when they refer to millions, as in ethnic minorities right?

[Jacob1983]

Boutons and other lib s, if you were really going to help, you would stop ing on a message board and get off your asses and help those less fortunate than you. However, you won't because liberals are all talk and that's it.

[boutons_deux]

Boutons and other lib s, if you were really going to help, you would stop ing on a message board and get off your asses and help those less fortunate than you. However, you won't because liberals are all talk and that's it.

pussying out as usual bull . The vast majority of the current poor are there because of VRWC policies.

[Jacob1983]

Boutons, I challenged you to step up and help the less fortunate and you pussied out on the challenge. You failed. Man up and own your defeat.

[The Reckoning]

they can always move to another state

[Trainwreck2100]

they can always move to another state

with what money? They're poor

[The Reckoning]

with what money? They're poor

poor people tend to ramble on more.

and once y'all start ing about families, etc etc. don't have kids if you can't afford the essentials. i share no pity.

[sickdsm]

Libs seem to prefer to making it mandatory to help out those less fortunate but scoff at religion which donates to those less fortunate.

[dbestpro]

with what money? They're poor

Doesn't stop poor people from South of the border.

[Jacob1983]

Liberals only talk about helping the less fortunate. It's rare to see liberals actually helping the less fortunate. They mainly just want to about it rather help the people they supposedly advocates for. It's pathetic and a joke but not surprising. Conservatives including neocons are nuts and go bat crazy sometimes but at least they actually do charity work and act like they give a .