Posted on 03/29/2020 5:52:43 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
As the single mother of a daughter with a congenital heart defect and compromised immune system, Melissa Dodge is taking every precaution she can to limit her exposure to COVID-19.
Dodge is one of roughly 130,000 Kansans and 200,000 Missourians who would be covered by Medicaid if their states had expanded eligibility under the Affordable Care Act. The change would cover adults who make up to 138% of the federal poverty line — an income of a little more than $17,600 for a single adult, or $42,300 for a family of five like Dodge’s.
Kansas and Missouri are two of just 14 states that have not expanded the program.
The decision to pass up billions in federal aid since 2014 will make coping with the novel coronavirus even more costly than anticipated, advocates contend.
It could also put the insured at greater risk, as those without health coverage remain untreated and accelerate the spread of the virus.
“It just feels like we don’t have our community’s support or our state’s support and that’s really disheartening,” said Dodge, who testified at a Kansas Senate hearing earlier this year in support of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s expansion plan.
In Missouri, supporters of a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid had to abandon a signature campaign because of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, advocates announced Tuesday they’ve already collected enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
But as the virus spreads, the uninsured in both states are bracing for the worst.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
We’re in MO and the Health Care Marketplace said we didn’t make enough money to use the system and sent us to MO medicare site who said we made too much money. There was literally no possible way to get health insurance.
Later on my wife was full time somewhere long enough to be eligible for benefits but what good is a $10,000 deductible for a family of four living off of $20k/year. Lower deductible plans would have cost more than half the paycheck.
Meanwhile, 16/17 years ago, with baby and toddler, we had a good United Healthcare plan, $20 copay for $400/mth via a broker.
FUBO
(FUBO)^5x10^8
And all the horses he rode in on.
No.
camels
No - but perhaps the reduced hospital capacity caused by Obamacare could.
“Kansas and Missouri didn’t expand Medicaid. Could that worsen the COVID-19 pandemic?”
“This whopper is so absurd, that we only had the courage to phrase it as a question.”
FU KC Star
But New York and California did and that’s making it so so much better.
The Star is a failing rag. The owbers declared bankruptcy and now they quit rolling out a Saturday edition. They are going under just like the other KC paper The Times did in 1989 and the Johnson County Sun did in 2011.
The owners are McClatchy.
The lose even more on every uninsured patient.
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