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POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

Failing to Expand Medicaid Costs Individuals, Too

We’ve written about the growing cost to states of not expanding Medicaid as part of health reform.  But let’s not forget that state policymakers’ decisions not to expand have a severe human cost, too, as an article in today’s Wall Street Journal makes clear.

The Journal details the plight of uninsured low-income workers in Alabama — one of the states that hasn’t expanded Medicaid — who are struggling to afford medications for chronic health conditions, or are forgoing needed care entirely because they lack health coverage.  These are some of the nearly 5 million individuals in 25 states caught in a “coverage gap” — with income too low to qualify for help buying private coverage through the new marketplaces and too high to qualify for Medicaid — that exists because their state has not expanded Medicaid (see chart).

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While Alabama Governor Robert Bentley opposes the expansion, a growing number of policymakers in non-expansion states are realizing that it doesn’t have to be this way.  Utah Governor Gary Herbert has announced he will push to expand this year because “doing nothing is not an option.”  And lawmakers in Nebraska, New Hampshire, and a handful of other states are charting their own paths toward expansion.

The Medicaid expansion is a good financial deal for states, and they can expand with the knowledge that the federal financial commitment to the expansion is solid, as we’ve previously explained.  Today’s Journal makes it clear how much individuals stand to gain from expanding as well.