Blame States For Not Expanding Medicaid,Obama Adminstration Will Tell Poor Residents

The federal government wants poor residents of states not expanding Medicaid under President Barack Obama's health care reform law to know who's denying them health coverage -- and the administration has a plan to make sure they find out.

When Americans begin shopping for benefits on the law's health insurance exchanges on Oct. 1, the people who would qualify for Medicaid but live in the 20-plus states where Republican governors or state legislators won't approve the expansion will see a note explaining that federal law allows them to get coverage that their states' leaders won't provide them. A senior administration official told reporters about the note Friday.

The health care reform law calls for Medicaid, the joint federal-state health program for the poor, to be opened up to anyone who earns up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $15,282 for a single person this year. But when the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare last year, justices also ruled that states could opt out of the Medicaid expansion. The result will be millions fewer poor U.S. residents gaining health coverage, mostly among adults without children.

More than 20 states are opting out of the Medicaid expansion because of opposition from GOP governors such as Rick Perry of Texas and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, or because majority-Republican legislatures blocked expansion plans supported by Republican governors such as Rick Snyder of Michigan and Democratic governors including Missouri's Jay Nixon.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/states-expanding-medicaid_n_3599232.html?utm_hp_ref=politics