Medicaid Expansion To Poorest Southerners Denied By Republicans

“If you’re poor and you live in the South, there’s a good chance health care reform won’t reach you. Intransigent Republican governors from Florida to Texas remain steadfastly resistant to President Barack Obama’s plan to expand Medicaid to their neediest constituents.

The health care reform law Obama enacted in 2010 depends heavily on Medicaid, a joint federal-state health benefits program, to reach the goal of near-universal health care. If every state participated, 17 million uninsured people would gain coveragethrough Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program between 2014 and 2022, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The law extends Medicaid to anyone who earns up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $14,856 this year.

But at least a half-dozen governors say they simply won’t go along with the law. When the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare in June, justices ruled states could opt out of the Medicaid expansion. The decision threatens to leave 3 million of the poorest Americans without health coverage, the Congressional Budget Office predicts.”

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