Question

Recall that Medicaid is a joint federal and state entitlement health insurance program. The ACA of 2010 required all states to eliminate the use of categories to determine eligibility and expand the Medicaid program to all persons younger than age 65 with incomes at or below 138% of the federal poverty level. However, in June 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that requiring states to expand their Medicaid programs was unconstitutional: Each state could make its own decision on whether to expand the program. By 2016, 32 states and Washington, D.C., had opted to expand their Medicaid programs. Declining expansion means that Medicaid continues as it was prior to the ACA’s implementation, with category-based eligibility.

1. Determine whether your state has expanded its Medicaid program.
2. Explain why a very poor person (income below FPL) living in one of the states that declined Medicaid expansion may be ineligible to participate in the health insurance exchanges.
3. What is the economic effect on the state (and on the hospital or site where you work or are being trained) of having a large population of uninsured people?
4. Why would a state choose not to participate in Medicaid expansion despite the federal promise of paying for the additional beneficiaries?
5. There is no “right” to health care in the U.S. Constitution. Debate the pros and cons of a universal Medicare-for-all healthcare finance program for the United States. Refer to the ANA Code of Ethics to inform your debate.

Answer 1

1. Yes my state has expanded its Medicaid program .

2. A poor person living in a state that declined Medicaid expansion will be ineligible to participate in the health insurance exchanges because in that state Medicaid is not valid and it won't be accepted for provision of healthcare services .

3. Due to increased number of uninsured people ,people belonging to low and middle class ( majority of them ) are unable to afford healthcare services . Hence ,it affects the revenue of the hospital negatively be auae people don't come for thw healthcare services .