Could Recipients of Medicaid Purchase Insurance on Exchanges in 2014?
Posted on Mon, Nov 22, 2010
As state officials decide whether or not to drop out of the federal/state Medicaid program, the question lies if poor people would be able to receive subsidies to help them purchase medical insurance coverage in an insurance exchange in 2014.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is contemplating that question, according to the federal center of Medicaid and State Operations. The answer to this question will ultimately determine who is responsible, the federal government or states, for the medical care of low income Americans, who amount to millions. Right now, the federal government and states share the cost for 49 million people on Medicaid. The new healthcare reform law is planning on adding an additional 16 million people to Medicaid, starting in 2014.
According to the new healthcare reform law, anybody that's under 133% of the federal poverty level for a family of four ($29,237) will go onto Medicaid. There's just one exception, which is legal immigrants that are poor, who will receive subsidies to purchase private medical insurance. The law says that just applicable taxpayers who have an income of 100% above the poverty level are able to receive subsidies.
That leaves a question for one category of U.S. residents: those people that have an income between 100%-133% of the poverty level. Those people may be eligible to receive subsidies.
However, the only method of ejecting a particular category of U.S. residents from Medicaid is for the state to get a waiver from the Department of Health and Human Services. That waiver may or may not be approved, depending on who is elected the presidency in 2012.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services have declined to state when or whether they'd make this clarification.