The number of uninsured Tennesseans fell 15 percent and uninsured Georgia residents shrank by 13 percent in the first full year of Obamacare, but such declines were only half as much as states that agreed to expand their Medicaid rolls such as Kentucky and West Virginia, according to a report released Thursday by Families USA.
The study of census data by the pro-Obamacare group found that states that expanded Medicaid, on average, had a 25 percent reduction in the rate of uninsured workers from 2013 to 2014, versus an average 13 percent drop in nonexpansion states during the same period.
FILE – In this June 10, 2105 file photo, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Obama administration says 12.7 million people signed up for private insurance or renewed coverage under the president’s health care law, respectable results for a program still in political jeopardy. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)Neither Tennessee nor Georgia opted to expand Medicaid after lawmakers worried that the state might be forced in the future to absorb the costly health care additions. Alabama, which also decided against participating in the expanded Medicaid option under Obamacare, cut its uninsured rolls by 12 percent from 2013 to 2014.
In Hawaii, Kentucky, Rhode Island and Vermont – all states that agreed to expand Medicaid – the number of uninsured persons plunged by 36 percent from 2013 to 2014.
“This is dramatic proof that states that accepted Medicaid expansion are putting themselves on a path toward building a healthier, more productive workforce,” said Dee Mahan, Families USA director of Medicaid Advocacy. “And expansion is good for the state’s economy overall because it frees up taxpayer money that would otherwise go to pay for uncompensated care.”
Beginning in 2014, Medicaid expansion offered states the chance to extend Medicaid eligibility to nearly all low-income individuals with incomes at or below 138 percent of poverty, or $27,724 for a family of three in 2015. In most states that have not extended Medicaid coverage, nondisabled adults without dependent children with incomes below poverty are not eligible for Medicaid and make too little to qualify for tax credits to purchase marketplace coverage.
Families USA, which supports the Affordable Care Act that Obama pushed and Congress adopted in 2010, examined Census data to compare uninsured workers in all 50 states between 2013 and 2014 – the first year Medicaid expansion was offered.
The federal government pays 100 percent of the expansion costs through 2016. Beginning in 2017, however, the federal share gradually declines until it reaches 90 percent in 2020 and critics of Obamacare worry that states that broaden Medicaid coverage could be shouldered with an even bigger share of costs in the future and a bigger share of the population will become dependent upon government care.