The national health care law that went into effect yesterday will
leave two-thirds of poor blacks and single mothers uninsured, as well as
more than half of low-wage workers who do not have health coverage.
According to an analysis of census data by The New York Times, the law was originally intended to help such individuals, but they will be left out under the new program. More than eight million needy individuals will be left out because they live in Republican-controlled states that have declined to participate in an expansion of Medicaid, the medical insurance program to aid the poor. The federal government will pay for the expansion through 2016 and 90 percent of costs afterwards.
Such individuals are indigent but rendered ineligible for help. Many of those left uninsured are stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place; individuals with slightly lower incomes than those who quality for federal subsidies with the new health exchange cannot qualify, and those who are poor enough to quality for Medicaid in its current form are left out. In its current form, Medicaid has income ceilings as low as $11 per day in certain states.
Many people who are trying to participate in the health insurance exchanges that went live this week are discovering that they are ineligible.
By Jessica Michele Herring
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