Medicaid Expansion Has Already Cut The Number Of Uninsured West Virginians By A Third

By Sy Mukherjee

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s (D) decision to accept Obamacare’s optional Medicaid expansion last spring is already paying off in a big way for the large number of poor and uninsured people in the state.

According to the New York Times, about 75,000 Wast Virginia residents have enrolled in Medicaid since Obamacare’s open enrollment season launched in October. While a portion of that consists of people who already had Medicaid benefits and are simply re-enrolling in the program, a sizable number of uninsured residents are gaining health benefits for the first time, thanks to the health law’s expanded eligibility threshold that allows anyone earning up 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) to enroll in Medicaid. In fact, the number of uninsured people in the states has already been reduced by a third.

An analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) finds that the Medicaid expansion will eventually reduce West Virginia’s uninsurance rate by a staggering 67 percent.

That’s particularly important in a state with sky-high rates of chronic illness and poverty. The Times highlights Sharon Mills, a disabled nurse with diabetes who had to rely on free samples and the kindness of strangers to afford her medication. “The heavy thing that was pressing on me is gone,” Mills said, describing her feelings of relief about gaining health insurance under the Medicaid expansion.

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http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/21/3184311/west-virginia-medicaid-expansion/