Health and Disability

On July 2, the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) issued a report, Missed Opportunities: the Consequences of State Decisions Not to Expand Medicaid, which details the impact of states’ decisions to not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. We are talking about a lot of people whose health care needs are put at risk because the 24 States have refused to expand Medicaid: 1. Preventive health care will not occur each year - a. for 214,000 women between the ages of 50 and 64 who would have received mammograms; b. for 345,000 women who would have received pap smears, and c. for 829,000 men and women who would have received cholesterol-level screenings. 2. Also, 651,000 people who would have received “all needed care” they felt they needed during the year. 3. If Medicaid had been expanded in every State, an additional 1.4 million people would likely have had a primary care visit at a physician’s office. See Chart #2 below for a breakdown by State. Real people, real lives, real injuries. Becausee these 24 States have not accepted Medicaid expansion, 255,000 people risked facing catastrophic out-of-pocket medical expenses which would have otherwise been covered with Medicaid.