MEDICAID-AWESOME AT 55
Medicaid has been a lifeline for millions of women with low income and children who would not get the health care coverage they need without it. Our nation’s essential public health safety net, 75 million people currently get coverage and women are a majority of all adults enrolled in Medicaid.
While far from perfect, the 55-year-old program has been a powerful instrument for addressing deeply embedded health inequities born of racism and poverty. Here are the top five reasons we think Medicaid is awesome!
- Health Coverage
Medicaid is the single largest source of health coverage in the United States, covering 25 million women. While coverage disparities still exist, the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion has led to historic reductions in racial disparities in access to health care since 2013. Today, one in four Black women, 23 percent of Latina, and 15 percent of Asian American women are covered by Medicaid.
2. Fighting Poverty
Medicaid is among the most effective anti-poverty programs and provides improved economic security to women. It lifts at least 2.6 million people out of poverty each year. In 2016, it reduced the poverty rates of Hispanics by 6.1 percentage points and African Americans by 4.9 percentage points..
3. Long-Term Care Coverage
Medicaid is the single largest source of long-term care coverage, providing critical services — for one and three nonelderly women with disabilities — that are not covered by Medicare or private insurance. These benefits range from personal care and home health assistance to facilitate independent living at home, to services provided in nursing homes, to transportation and supported employment as well as assistance provided by a family caregiver.
4. Reproductive Health Care
Medicaid is the nation’s largest source of reproductive health care, covering a vast majority of publicly funded family planning services and 43 percent of all births, including 50 percent of all births in rural areas, 60 percent of all births to Latinas, and 66 percent of all births to Black women.
5. Mental Health Services
Medicaid is the single largest payer of mental health services in the United States. Medicaid covers 23 percent of women with mental illness. States with Medicaid expansion programs are required to cover 10 essential health benefits, behavioral health treatment and mental health services are included.
THE GOP WAR ON MEDICAID-AWFUL
President Trump, Republicans in Congress and statehouses across the country have waged a relentless war on Medicaid. And women, especially women of color, children, seniors, people with disabilities, and those living in rural areas, are the victims. Trump’s lawsuit to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act is just one of many ways the administration has attacked Medicaid. Here are the five most awful things about the war on Medicaid.
- California v. Texas
If the ACA were to be struck down, over 12 million people would lose coverage that they received through Medicaid expansion.
2. Medicaid Expansion
As of June 2020, 14 states still have not expanded coverage leaving a little under 2.3 million people who would be eligible for Medicaid through the expansion without coverage. Most of the 14 states are located in the south and have large populations of women of color who already suffer from health inequities born of racism.
3. Medicaid Work Requirements
Allowing states to institute work requirements for Medicaid recipients will disproportionately affect Black women. In Mississippi for example, one of five states seeking to implement work requirements, 71percent of Black adults would be affected by the proposal but only making 37 percent of the state’s population, compared to 24 percent of white adults who will be affected and making up 58percent of Mississippi’s population.
4. Medicaid Financing
Medicaid enrollment is increasing rapidly as many people become unemployed due to COVID-19, creating additional costs for state Medicaid programs. If Congress does not enhance the Federal matching rate, many states will likely cut Medicaid benefits and eligibility, leaving people without access to care, undermining the COVID-19 response.
5. Public Charge Rule
The public charge rule, which allows federal immigration officials to more easily deny permanent residency status or a visa extension to those who depend on certain public benefits such as Medicaid. This is a dangerous policy asit forces immigrant families to forgo essential health services due to fear or misinformation. Based on an Urban Institute study done in 2019, roughly 1 percent of immigrant families and 16 percent of those with low-income avoided a medical problem. These figures may be even higher now that the rule has gone into effect.
