Many celebrate Medicaid expansion in Idaho, but still fear its political uncertainty – By Phil McCausland (NBC News) / Dec 20 2019
“For me, I’m looking at kidney failure, dialysis, death — and I don’t want to die,” said one Idaho woman who will be covered by Medicaid in January.
POCATELLO, Idaho — Melissa Turner almost died twice in emergency rooms, and because she didn’t have health insurance, two separate medical procedures have left her with tens of thousands of dollars of medical debt, paralyzing her life.
Turner, 37, a resident of this windswept town at the edge of the Rocky Mountains, said she tried to get coverage. After losing her job and the health insurance she received as a cafeteria worker at Idaho State University in 2015, Turner immediately went to an insurance broker because she had already faced a series of expensive hospitalizations throughout her life for misdiagnosed health issues.
“He just looked at me and said, ‘Welcome to the gap,’” Turner recalled, sitting inside the public library where she now works. “And I was like, ’What’s that?’ And he goes, ‘You’re not covered by Obamacare or Medicaid. You’re in the gap.’ And I was like, ‘Crap.’”
That gap affects people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid in states that haven’t expanded their programs, but not enough for one of Obamacare’s marketplace plans.
The gap is a significant issue in the 14 states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs as part of the Affordable Care Act, but it is about to close in Idaho. Last year, in a ballot initiative, 62 percent of the state’s voters supported Medicaid expansion. That means Turner and 91,000 others, or about 5 percent of the state’s population, will become eligible for Medicaid coverage starting Jan. 1. Currently about 11 percent of Idaho’s residents are uninsured.
Now the income qualification is increased to about $35,500 for a family of four or $17,000 for an individual. That expansion could have a huge impact, since 15 percent of Idahoans now carry medical debt, with a median amount of $807, and have been sent to collection agencies for it, according to the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
“The expansion is a relief for future medical costs,” Turner said. “I just hope it goes through because it will open up opportunities for me and I won’t have to worry.”
Continue to article: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/many-celebrate-medicaid-expansion-idaho-still-fear-its-political-uncertainty-n1103546
Highway 93 near Challis, Idaho, which is the largest town in the 4,500 square-mile Custer County and home to about 1,100 people.Janie Osborne / for NBC News
