The GOP and especially Ted Cruz have made a big deal about defunding Obama's Health Insurance Reform plan, but haven't they already defeated it. Some are arguing that they have. The New York Times ran a piece last week that showed just how drastic the results of the Supreme Court decision to let states opt out of the Medicaid expansion had been for the implementation of the law. As it stands now 26 states run by Republican governors have decided to opt out of the new Medicaid expansion effectively making it impossible for their residents to participate in the new coverage under the ACA but that's not the only problem there is an additional loophole that makes it hard for the people who need it most to get it, even in states were it is going to be available.
Has GOP Already Defeated Obamacare? State Opt-Outs Leave Millions of Poor Without Health Insurance
The federal government shutdown began on Tuesday, the same day that a key facet of President Obama’s healthcare law went live nationwide. For the first time, Americans were able to begin purchasing health insurance from federal and state exchanges. But The New York Times reports the new healthcare law will leave out two-thirds of the nation’s poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the nation’s low-wage workers who do not have insurance. That’s because they live in 26 states controlled by Republicans that have rejected the vast expansion of Medicaid. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to opt out of the expanded Medicaid provision earlier this year. Overall, up to seven million Americans are now ineligible for Medicaid — they make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to get help to buy a plan on the new healthcare market. We discuss the government shutdown and the launching of health insurance enrollment under the Affordable Care Act with two guests: Imara Jones, economic justice contributor for Colorlines.com and a former Clinton White House staffer, and Trudy Lieberman, a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review who has reported extensively on the Affordable Care Act.
AMY GOODMAN: And then, you couple this with the healthcare exchanges—who gets covered, and who doesn’t? The front page of The New York Times today, major piece, "Millions of Poor are Left Uncovered by Health Law: Choice by States Not to Expand Medicaid Undercuts Reach of Obama Plan."
IMARA JONES: I mean, one of the interesting things is that the GOP is saying that this is about "Obamacare" and want to shut down the government because of "Obamacare," but the GOP largely has defeated "Obamacare" in a lot of places in the country. And that’s because, as the Times point out, as I’ve written about, as you just said, that half—
AMY GOODMAN: You’ve written about it well before this.
IMARA JONES: I did, I did. That half of the states are—in the United States, are participating in Medicaid. Overwhelmingly, they’re in the South, where half of people of color live in this country, black people, and also Latinos. The second-largest state in the union that—with a Latino population is Texas. It’s not included. And so, it’s leaving a lot of people behind. And so, they say that they want to roll back "Obamacare," but through stopping Medicaid, they largely already have.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, it really is astounding. "The 26 states that have rejected the Medicaid expansion are home to about half of the country’s population," writes The New York Times, "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." Trudy Lieberman, you’ve also written extensively about the whole—not only the Affordable Care Act, but just who gets covered and who doesn’t, because you have to include those who are going to be cut off of Medicaid expansion—
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/10/3/has_gop_already_defeated_obamacare_state
Has GOP Already Defeated Obamacare? State Opt-Outs Leave Millions of Poor Without Health Insurance
The federal government shutdown began on Tuesday, the same day that a key facet of President Obama’s healthcare law went live nationwide. For the first time, Americans were able to begin purchasing health insurance from federal and state exchanges. But The New York Times reports the new healthcare law will leave out two-thirds of the nation’s poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the nation’s low-wage workers who do not have insurance. That’s because they live in 26 states controlled by Republicans that have rejected the vast expansion of Medicaid. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to opt out of the expanded Medicaid provision earlier this year. Overall, up to seven million Americans are now ineligible for Medicaid — they make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to get help to buy a plan on the new healthcare market. We discuss the government shutdown and the launching of health insurance enrollment under the Affordable Care Act with two guests: Imara Jones, economic justice contributor for Colorlines.com and a former Clinton White House staffer, and Trudy Lieberman, a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review who has reported extensively on the Affordable Care Act.
AMY GOODMAN: And then, you couple this with the healthcare exchanges—who gets covered, and who doesn’t? The front page of The New York Times today, major piece, "Millions of Poor are Left Uncovered by Health Law: Choice by States Not to Expand Medicaid Undercuts Reach of Obama Plan."
IMARA JONES: I mean, one of the interesting things is that the GOP is saying that this is about "Obamacare" and want to shut down the government because of "Obamacare," but the GOP largely has defeated "Obamacare" in a lot of places in the country. And that’s because, as the Times point out, as I’ve written about, as you just said, that half—
AMY GOODMAN: You’ve written about it well before this.
IMARA JONES: I did, I did. That half of the states are—in the United States, are participating in Medicaid. Overwhelmingly, they’re in the South, where half of people of color live in this country, black people, and also Latinos. The second-largest state in the union that—with a Latino population is Texas. It’s not included. And so, it’s leaving a lot of people behind. And so, they say that they want to roll back "Obamacare," but through stopping Medicaid, they largely already have.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, it really is astounding. "The 26 states that have rejected the Medicaid expansion are home to about half of the country’s population," writes The New York Times, "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." Trudy Lieberman, you’ve also written extensively about the whole—not only the Affordable Care Act, but just who gets covered and who doesn’t, because you have to include those who are going to be cut off of Medicaid expansion—
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/10/3/has_gop_already_defeated_obamacare_state
