Democrats’ Push to Expand Medicaid Depends on Red States Taking the Bait – By Abigail Abrahms (TIME) / Feb 14 2021
Every week, Shellie Fry carefully plans out each meal she, her 81-year-old father, and her 30-year-old son will eat. She buys the least amount of food she thinks they can manage because money has been tight since her father lost his job cleaning charter buses in March, after the pandemic hit. Without health insurance, she pays out of pocket for the medications she needs for her bipolar disorder, heartburn and blood pressure, and by the time the family pays its other bills, as well as her father’s Medicare contribution and medications, there is little money left. “I’ve had a few times where I just didn’t know how we’re gonna pay for groceries,” she says. Still, she knows she can’t skip her medications, thinking, “Who’s going to take care of these people when I’m gone?”
Because Florida did not expand its Medicaid program in 2014 when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) first allowed states the option, Floridian adults without children are not eligible regardless of how little they make. While Fry’s son is autistic and can’t be left alone for more than a few hours, Fry says, his age means that she does not qualify for public health coverage. When she looked into buying coverage through the ACA marketplace, she didn’t make enough to qualify for any assistance there either, and the plans were far too expensive.
Fry’s story, while unique in the details, is familiar to millions of low-income Americans who remain uninsured, caught in a coverage gap that leaves no affordable option for health insurance—even during a pandemic when access to health care is more important than ever. Now Democrats are trying to use their proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package to address the problem by expanding Medicaid access and increasing ACA subsidies nationwide.
CONTINUE > https://time.com/5938425/democrats-health-care-medicaid/
