A veteran Detroit newspaperman taught me the saying, “No (rhymes with spit), Sherlock,” when I was a young journalist in the early 1980s.
The profanity phrase – I can’t do it Justice in a family publication – refers to a headline or article that says something so obvious and predictable that the reason why the editor assigned it is questioned was used for (Think “a gunshot rocks the neighborhood” or “a blizzard keeps residents at home.” You get my drift.)
But such articles are sometimes justified. They are proving that what politicians and community activists predicted from the beginning has actually come true.
This is a recent look at how the federal expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare provided financial security to its adult subscribers, after years of vicious and staunch Republican opposition. Take me to the story of Virginia Mercury.
This article is based on research published in Health Affairs magazine. It covered a study by Virginia Commonwealth University medical student and lead author Hannah Shadowen.
The study found that new Medicaid enrollees were more likely to use a doctor’s office as their usual source of care than an expensive emergency room. Reduced stress over non-medical expenses such as groceries and rent.
“Non-Hispanic blacks reported significantly less worry about their usual medical costs after enrolling in Medicaid compared to non-Hispanic whites,” the study found, adding, “Medicaid expansion suggests that is of particular significance for this group.
Also, “Rural members had significantly reduced health care payment problems and unmet prescription needs one year after enrolling in Medicaid compared to non-rural members. .”
In short, the lives of new Medicaid patients have improved dramatically. This is great for the individual and for the image of the state.
Well, of course. NSS.
of course Things have improved for adults who were not in the program due to previous restrictions. of course Practicing preventative care by seeing a doctor regularly is preferable to rushing to an expensive ER in the event of a medical crisis.
More than 677,000 adults have enrolled in Medicaid since the expansion began in January 2019, according to the state. Proponents initially believed that about 400,000 adults whose incomes ranged up to 138% of the poverty line would sign up before the General Assembly changed course in his 2018.
The issue is also an indictment of Republican state legislators who have long fought hard to deny more adults access to health care. In this, they were motivated more by politics than compassion for low-income Virginians. They were trying to prevent President Barack Obama and the Democrats from winning a political victory at the cost of the health of those in desperate need.
This approach was both callous and hypocritical, as many legislators were participating in low-cost, high-profit national plans. A 2014 news account noted that the state covered these lawmakers’ dependents as much as 200 of her.
Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, allowed states to expand Medicaid beginning in 2014 and required the federal government to pay at least 90% of the cost. Republican opponents argued that the federal government could refuse to pay its share later in life.
That argument has always been questionable. For one thing, states rarely deny federal funding based on Washington’s potential Might be so Cut the plug later.
It’s like telling a sick patient not to give medicine now because it might lose its potency in the future.
The Republican Party’s timidity became perfectly evident after the fall 2017 elections saw them nearly lose control of the state House. Polls at the time showed strong support for expanding Medicaid among Virginians.
As a result, many Republicans dropped their seats in the House in 2018. Also in the Senate, he had four Republicans vote for the expansion, 23 to 17.As I pointed out in that year’s Virginian Pilots column,, Republicans “speculated that the will of the people was ultimately worthy of obedience.”
This week, I tried to reach out to several state senators who opposed the expansion. Among them is Tommy Norment of R-James City, who was the Senate Majority Leader in 2018.
No message was returned.
About 38 states and the District of Columbia have accepted federal funding to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. The dozen holdouts are mostly in the south, such as Alabama, Florida, Texas and Mississippi.
The latter is the poorest state in the country based on a poverty rate of 18.7%. The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation, claims that expanding its business in Mississippi “is a better financial deal than ever before, in addition to significantly increasing insurance coverage.”
As you can imagine, Republicans control the governor’s seat and both houses of the state legislature.
Virginia, like the rest of the United States, suspended annual eligibility reviews for Medicaid participants during the pandemic. The review says he may resume in October. If they do, people may lose their insurance if their annual income exceeds the limit, although some may have had health insurance elsewhere.
What we do know so far is that since 2019, more poor people have access to better health care in Virginia. their stress is reduced. They could spend their precious dollars on other necessities. All because Medicaid expanded.
NSS? It should now be clear, even to the legislators who opposed the Medicaid changes.
