Medicaid
Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with medical costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and personal care services. The Health Insurance As…
Why is Medicaid expansion bad for hospitals?
In addition to harming existing Medicaid patients, expansion takes away private insurance options for many of its beneficiaries. Furthermore, transferring hundreds of thousands of patients from private insurance pay to Medicaid would have a significant negative impact on hospitals’ and other care providers’ bottom lines.
What would expanding Medicaid look like?
Expanding Medicaid would force traditional Medicaid populations to compete for limited access to care with hundreds of thousands of mostly childless, able-bodied adults. The key issue of the 2019 legislative session was the battle over the expansion of the state’s Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Why do Democrats want to end Medicaid expansion?
They don’t want to deny people access to health care. But they do want to halt expansion of a program that provides limited access to quality care while devouring state budgets. Many political leaders are demanding that Washington allow states to improve Medicaid for their most vulnerable citizens.
Why is it so hard to get Medicaid?
There are many people who qualify for Medicaid and this can overwhelm the care structure that some communities have. This means some households may need to travel over 100 miles to receive the medical care that they need and those costs can be difficult to absorb. It may also mean lengthy delays in receiving care.
Can Medicare be expanded?
No state has the power to expand Medicare, as it is a federal program. However, states are able to expand their Medicaid programs within federal guidelines. Will Medicare be expanded to include dental? Originally, the Democratic Senate's proposed included coverage for dental, vision, and hearing care.
Why Medicaid expansion is a bad idea?
Obamacare's Medicaid expansion does more harm than good. Every state that has expanded Medicaid has put an undue burden on taxpayers. Enrollment in the programs is always higher than expected, meaning taxpayers are on the hook when states run out of money to fund Medicaid. That's especially bad for Nebraskans.
What are some cons of Medicare?
Disadvantages of Medicare Advantage PlansYour options may be limited. ... You can't use Medigap with Medicare Advantage plans. ... If you have end-stage renal disease (ESRD), you don't qualify. ... You may not be able to see a provider of your choice. ... Your plan could stop participating in Medicare.
What are the cons of Medicaid expansion?
List of Medicaid Expansion ConsFree health insurance is usually available to those who need it. ... It could create delays when trying to visit a doctor. ... Doctors are not required to accept patients on Medicaid. ... It only benefits specific segments of the population. ... Expansion would stop the benefits of private insurance.More items...•
Is Medicare good or bad?
Medicare IS Good When Paired with the Right Coverage So is Medicare good or bad? All in all, it's pretty great. While no program is perfect, we see people here all the time who are spending over a thousand dollars a month on Cobra benefits. Transitioning to Medicare insurance is a relief for them.
What states opted out of Obamacare?
Twelve states have yet to pass a Medicaid expansion: Wyoming, Texas, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kansas and Florida.
What are two major problems with respect to the future of Medicare?
Financing care for future generations is perhaps the greatest challenge facing Medicare, due to sustained increases in health care costs, the aging of the U.S. population, and the declining ratio of workers to beneficiaries.
What would happen if we get rid of Medicare?
Payroll taxes would fall 10 percent, wages would go up 11 percent and output per capita would jump 14.5 percent. Capital per capita would soar nearly 38 percent as consumers accumulated more assets, an almost ninefold increase compared to eliminating Medicare alone.
How much does Medicare cost the government?
$776 billionMedicare accounts for a significant portion of federal spending. In fiscal year 2020, the Medicare program cost $776 billion — about 12 percent of total federal government spending. Medicare was the second largest program in the federal budget last year, after Social Security.
Was Obamacare a good thing?
Conclusion. The ACA has helped millions of Americans gain insurance coverage, saved thousands of lives, and strengthened the health care system. The law has been life-changing for people who were previously uninsured, have lower incomes, or have preexisting conditions, among other groups.
What were the three 3 positive effects associated with expanding Medicaid coverage when compared to states which did not expand Medicaid?
Access to care and related measures: Most research demonstrates that Medicaid expansion has improved access to care, utilization of services, the affordability of care, and financial security among the low-income population.
Why the Affordable Care Act is good?
The ACA supports public health prevention efforts. It created the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which has paid for public health efforts across the country. The ACA requires insurance policies to cover essential health benefits that can help prevent serious, costly conditions.
Why is Medicaid expansion bad?
12 Reasons Why Medicaid Expansion Is A Terrible Idea. More than four years after the president signed his signature health care initiative, the Affordable Care Act, into law, many states are still struggling to navigate it. A key issue still facing states is whether to expand Medicaid and increase the pool of residents eligible to join the program.
How much does Medicaid expansion reduce private coverage?
One of the architects of Obamacare, Jonathan Gruber (who also coauthored that Oregon Medicaid study), estimates that Medicaid expansions can reduce private coverage by 60 percent. A RAND study also found that of 60 percent of Medicaid expansion is just replacing coverage ...
What is the formula used to calculate the federal share of per state Medicaid funding?
The formula used to calculate the federal share of per state Medicaid funding is known as FMAP, or Federal Medical Assistance Percentage. Some states get a lot, and some states get very little. Quite often, a state’s FMAP is dependent upon whether that state has a particularly powerful lawmaker in Congress. Sen.
Why was Medicaid created?
Medicaid was created to give low-income families access to quality care —it was never meant to be a replacement for private coverage of people who can afford it. 7. Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is financed with $1 trillion in tax hikes and $700 billion in cuts to Medicare.
How is Obamacare paid for?
Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is paid for through a combination of tax increases and cuts to Medicare. The program doesn’t work like a typical discretionary program, where a fixed amount is appropriated regardless of program utilization. Medicaid’s cost increases are tied directly to enrollment.
Does Medicaid cover physical health?
This randomized, controlled study showed that Medicaid coverage generated no significant improvements in measured physical health outcomes in the first 2 years. 2. Medicaid promises people health coverage, but often denies them access to quality doctors.
Does Medicaid improve health?
1. Medicaid doesn’t actually improve health outcomes. According to an extensive, randomized study of people who enrolled in Oregon’s 2008 Medicaid lottery, Medicaid doesn’t improve the health outcomes of its patients, even after controlling for major health predictors like income and pre-existing health status.
How does Medicaid expansion affect the cost of healthcare?
Medicaid Expansion Lowers Access To Providers For Enrollees, Raises The Price Of Healthcare For Everybody. The cost of the Medicaid Expansion isn’t exclusive to state and federal budgets, but directly affects the cost of care for everyone.
Why is Governor Evers so desperate to expand Medicaid in Wisconsin?
We wonder why Governor Evers is still so desperate to expand Medicaid in Wisconsin when, demonstrably, Wisconsin’s system is working to get people healthcare, keep treatment costs low, and keep people gainfully employed. Expansion could upend all of that progress.
How many providers accept new patients in 2019?
In 2019, the federal Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) reported that only 70.8% of all medical providers in the United States would accept new MA patients, versus 85.3% of providers that would accept new Medicare patients and 90% of providers that would accept new privately-insured patients.
What is the coverage gap in Wisconsin?
The coverage gap is a problem in all non-Expansion states, except for Wisconsin. The gap occurs when certain low-income individuals earn too much money to enroll in their state’s MA program, but don’t earn enough to qualify for subsidies on the Obamacare insurance exchange.
Is Wisconsin expanding Medicaid?
The Governor included the Medicaid Expansion plan in his 2019-2021 budget, but the Wisconsin Legislature rejected the idea then over concerns that accepting the temporary enhanced federal reimbursement rate would put Wisconsin taxpayers on the hook for a large spending increase in the future. While the Governor and his allies have attempted ...
Is Medicaid expansion unnecessary in Wisconsin?
This is because of Obamacare and a strategic move by the Walker administration that eliminated gaps in coverage for certain income levels, making Medicaid Expansion unnecessary in Wisconsin.
Why should we not expand Medicaid?
1. Medicaid harms the poor. The Medicaid program actually harms the people it is intended to serve.
What happens if one state doesn't expand Medicaid?
The expansion is an entitlement; if one state doesn’t expand, the money stays in the federal coffers (or reduces the amount Washington must borrow). 3. Medicaid’s access problems will get worse as more doctors drop out. Coverage is not the same thing as care.
How many people would be enrolled in Medicaid by the end of the decade?
If all states were to go along with the optional Medicaid expansion, nearly 90 million people would be enrolled in the program by the end of the decade, including those newly-eligible under the ObamaCare optional expansion.
Why is Medicaid a disincentive?
Medicaid imposes a huge disincentive on the poor to find work because they fall out of the program once they start earning better incomes. If states choose not to expand Medicaid, able-bodied adults who seek work and who successfully cross the poverty line should have the option of subsidized private insurance.
How much would it cost to expand Medicaid?
Expanding Medicaid would cost states an additional $118 billion through 2023, according to a recent congressional report. [8] . The additional spending surely would crowd out funds for education, transportation, parks, public safety, and other vital state needs.
When was Medicaid created?
Medicaid — the joint federal and state program designed to finance health care for the poor — has not been fundamentally changed since it was created in 1965 . Legislators know Medicaid desperately needs to be modernized for the 21 st century, and even President Obama argued the case during the debate over ObamaCare.
How many states will see an increase in Medicaid?
Even under current spending projections, 40 states will see an increase in their costs if they expand Medicaid. After the first three years of the 100% federal match, state costs will continue to climb, dwarfing any projected savings.
What are the woodwork and crowd out effects of Medicaid?
The Woodwork and Crowd-Out Effects — Those Medicaid growth projections are likely low, as eligible people “come out of the woodwork” to join the program. For example, an estimated 25 percent of the uninsured are eligible for Medicaid but not enrolled.
Why should states reject the expansion?
For states that are still undecided, here are several reasons they should reject the expansion. 1. Medicaid Is Bad Coverage — Medicaid is the worst health insurance coverage in the country, and yet ObamaCare did nothing to fix its many problems. Take access to physicians.
What percentage of Medicaid will the federal government pay?
Expansion advocates claim that the federal government will absorb most of the cost of the newly eligible Medicaid enrollees—100 percent for a few years, dropping to 90 percent by 2020. That’s much larger than the average 57 percent share the federal government now pays. What a deal!
How much is Medicaid fraud?
No one knows for sure how big the Medicaid fraud problem is, but estimates put it in the range of $60 billion a year. For example, Texas spent $1.4 billion on Medicaid pediatric orthodontics—more than every other state combined!
How much will Medicaid cost in 2020?
Total Medicaid spending (state and federal) is projected to grow from about $400 billion to about $900 billion by 2020. At 23.5 percent, Medicaid has become the biggest budget item for most state budgets, surpassing K-12 education.
Does Medicaid limit access to health care?
The problem highlights a serious misunderstanding among Democrats pushing the legislation: Access to health insurance is not the same as access to health care.
Should Republicans work with Democrats to expand Medicaid?
Democrats claim that Republicans should work with them to implement the Medicaid expansion. But the time for “working together” was when the legislation was crafted, and Democrats rejected that option. Considering all the problems that will come with Medicaid expansion, states would be wise to reject it now.
What would expand Medicaid?
Expanding Medicaid would force traditional Medicaid populations to compete for limited access to care with hundreds of thousands of mostly childless, able-bodied adults. The key issue of the 2019 legislative session was the battle over the expansion of the state’s Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
What is Medicaid expansion?
Medicaid expansion is a proposed solution to a legitimate problem – created by the ACA – known as the “coverage gap,” in which some uninsured, childless adults have incomes that are too low to qualify for a subsidy on the federal exchange.
Will Medicaid expansion hurt the traditional population?
Adding hundreds of thousands of new recipients onto the Medicaid rolls would harm the traditional Medicaid population. Many of the new recipients under expansion will be forced to trade their more-generous private health insurance options in exchange for longer wait times and less available providers.
Did the governor expand Medicaid?
Despite holding the state budget captive, the governor was not able to accomplish his top policy objective of expanding Medicaid. The Medicaid expansion debate is often framed as an issue of healthcare versus state budget considerations.
Is expansion a neutral choice?
Thus, expansion is not a neutral choice; it could actually harm current Medicaid enrollees by further limiting their access to care. Access to care is already strained for those who need it most. Medicaid reimburses healthcare providers at a lower rate than private insurance.
What percentage of Georgia's uninsured would be affected by Medicaid expansion?
Nearly 60 percent of Georgia’s uninsured would be unaffected by Medicaid expansion because their family incomes are above the threshold established by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The greater proportion of the uninsured has incomes between 139 percent and 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. This is precisely the income range ...
What is the federal reimbursement rate for Medicaid expansion?
Since then, the federal reimbursement rate has been falling. It was 94 percent in 2018, is 93 percent for 2019, and will be 90 percent in 2020.
How much more money did Georgia need for Medicaid?
To put this in perspective, Georgia would have needed $562 million more in state revenue for its Medicaid program in 2018 had it expanded Medicaid along with the expansion states. This assumes that the cost of Medicaid would have grown consistent with the average experience of the expansion states.
Is affordability important for ACA?
This is precisely the income range that the ACA health insurance exchanges are supposed to serve. Even with the premium tax credit and other subsides, affordability for average-income families was not achieved. Affordability is extremely important. A study by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies listed affordability first ...
