It depends on who you ask. Nearly five years after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law, outlining the Medicaid expansion program, states still disagree about whether to implement it. The Medicaid expansion — along with the individual mandate — was taken to the Supreme Court in 2012 and while the individual mandate was upheld, the Medicaid expansion became optional.
The proponents say expanding Medicare will create more jobs because more people will go to the physician. It will also reduce non-paying visits in the emergency room and at other healthcare facilities. Opponents say expanding Medicaid is problematic since the country is in a deficit, feeling they can’t afford to cover the costs, and insurance companies could lose lower-income subscribers, according to a Medical Recovery Services report.
The Wyoming Senate defeated the Medicaid expansion today, despite the governor advocating for signing the legislation into the state’s policy. The state’s House pulled their version of the bill shortly after, ending it’s run.
“Today is a great day for taxpayers, patients and the truly needy of Wyoming,” said Tarren Bragdon, CEO of the Foundation for Government Accountability. “We are so excited to see another legislature stand up to another Republican governor in their effort to protect their people from the disaster that is ObamaCare.”
But not everyone sees ObamaCare as a disaster, or even Medicaid expansion as a problem. On the same day Wyoming’s bill was struck down, the Chicago Tribune published an article titled, “Medicaid expansion in Illinois should be praised.” The expansion allows around 541,000 more low-income residents to obtain healthcare.
There was a higher-than-expected enrollment in the state of Illinois, and the federal government is now paying 100 percent of the Medicaid costs for adults signing up with the program. That percentage will decrease to 90 percent by 2020, and stay at that level if the law remains in its original form.
Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf is also jumping on the Medicaid expansion bandwagon, launching the program today, according to a Huffington Post report. He said the expansion was the “first step toward simplifying a complicated process and ensuring hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians have greater access to the health insurance they need.”
Kansas is also moving in that direction with a plan to expand Medicaid introduced in the House, according to an Eye Witness News report. The bill would tax hospitals and healthcare providers to raise state matching funds required to tap extra federal dollars for expanding Medicaid services. The bill would also allow Medicaid recipients to work.
As in most states, Republican lawmakers are weary of the expansion in Kansas.
Tennessee is currently debating an alternative to the Medicaid expansion plan that would provide a federally subsidized healthcare to around 280,000 residents who aren’t currently eligible for Medicaid — those at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
There are 29 states, including Washington, D.C., that have adopted the expansion. Most are states in the northern part of country. There are seven states that have adoptions under discussion, and 15 states with no Medicaid expansion at this time, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report.
Where Medicaid was expanded, patient at hospitals increased significantly for the first quarter of 2014, when the expansion took effect. Self-pay and charity care did decrease, according to a Colorado Hospital Association report. At the same time, there was no change in Medicaid, self-pay and charity care in states that did not expand Medicaid last year.
Will these benefits continue long-term, especially after the federal government reduces its coverage of the program to 90 percent in two years? The impact remains elusive as the healthcare reform debate rages on.
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