A Critical Conversation on Affordable Care
A community forum will be held Thursday, March 14, at 6 p.m. in the Mountain View Room at the Sherrill Center, UNCA on the proposed Insurance Exchange to be set up under the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (“Obamacare”) as well as the impact of the state legislature’s decision to reject Medicaid expansion in North Carolina.
Medicaid expansion would increase health care access to 500,000 working poor, provide reimbursement to hospitals for uncompensated care, and create an estimated 23,000 health care industry jobs across the state, but earlier this year Governor Pat McCrory announced he would not allow Medicaid to expand in North Carolina, citing a need to restructure and improve the existing state program first. He and legislative leaders have also asserted that after three years during which Washington would pay all costs, the requirement that the state would have to cover up to 10% of future costs would burden the state’s taxpayers.
The legislature also voted not to establish a state-run Insurance Exchange program. Under the ACA, states can set up their own exchanges, work in partnership with the federal government, or allow the federal government to operate its national exchange in the state. Former Gov. Bev Perdue had planned to establish a state exchange, but Gov. McCrory reversed her decision. Instead, state residents will be able to buy insurance through the federal program.
Under current law many lower-income people – even those with full-time jobs – who lack access to affordable insurance do not have their ailments treated when they are minor; instead, because they cannot afford early treatment, they end up in hospital emergency rooms when their conditions become acute. The costs of emergency-room services have traditionally been covered through a federal reimbursement program; however, because expanded Medicaid was designed to insure many of those individuals, under the ACA those reimbursements will be cut drastically in 2014, whether or not a state expands Medicaid.
Medicaid expansion would provide health insurance coverage for those living at or below 138% of the poverty level – $32,499 for a family of four. With Asheville’s estimated median household income for 2009 at $34,457, almost all hard-working, low-wage earners in our community would be eligible for the expanded coverage, improving individual health outcomes and reducing costly emergency visits.
Because of the decisions by the governor and legislators, area residents and leaders must decide what to do without Medicaid expansion. A first step is investigating how the federal Insurance Exchange will work.
The presentation will provide an overview of Medicaid expansion and the Insurance Exchange, an explanation of what we are losing by not expanding Medicaid and information on opportunities with the exchange. Panelists will include Shannon Dowler, Chief Medical Officer, Blue Ridge Community Health Services; Jaclyn Kiger, Attorney, Pisgah Legal Services; Allison Rice, Senior Attorney, Duke AIDS Legal Project and Adam Searing, Director, NC Justice Center’s Health Access Coalition.
The forum is sponsored by Western North Carolina AIDS Project and community partners ABIPA, Children First/Communities in Schools, Just Economics, Pisgah Legal Services, Planned Parenthood of Asheville, United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County, WNC Community Health Services and WNC Health Advocates. For more information, please go to wncap.org.
