Origanalist
09-17-2013, 08:42 AM
GAINESVILLE, Fla. Jennifer Webb works the deli counter at Publix supermarket and has thyroid problems. Her boyfriend, William May, is an artist recovering from colon cancer.
The couple has relied on a county program that provides health coverage to the working poor. But their “security blanket,” as Webb calls the Alachua County CHOICES program, is being taken away at the end of December. As new coverage provisions take effect Jan. 1 under the Affordable Care Act, the new health care law, local programs that offered barebones care to the uninsured are in flux – and with them, the lives of thousands who depend on them.
A few programs, like CHOICES and HealthShare in northern Minnesota, are shutting down. Others, such as the Appalachian Healthcare Project in Boone, N.C., and Vita Health in Palm Beach County, Fla., are scaling back the number of people they cover. Programs in Lansing, Mich., and Houston are continuing at least for now, but their future is uncertain.
As a result, many enrollees are unsure about how – or even if – they will be able to get coverage next year and what it will cost.
“It’s a big concern,” said May, 39, who despite his low income won’t qualify for government help to buy a policy in Florida’s new online marketplace under the Affordable Care Act. “What happens if the cancer returns? What will they do, just sweep me under the rug?”
The law’s framers had expected people like May who make less than the federal poverty level, or $11,500 annually for an individual, to get coverage through the health law’s expansion of Medicaid. But Florida is among about two dozen states that chose not to expand eligibility to cover everyone below 138 percent of the poverty level after the Supreme Court made it optional.
As a result, almost two-thirds of CHOICES’ enrollees will have no coverage because they earn less than the poverty level, but still too much to qualify for Medicaid. The law provides sliding scale subsidies to help people buy private insurance only if they make between 100 percent and 400 percent of the poverty level, or between $11,500 and $46,000 for an individual. Caught in the middle, they have little recourse.
“It’s a travesty because there are going to be thousands of people who are going to be stuck without any medical, dental or vision benefits,” said James Paladino, a Gainesville dentist who treats some of the program’s 4,700 enrollees. “They are going to be left out in the cold.
continued......http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/13/202068/health-care-law-imperils-some.html#.Ujd4J8akq9J
The couple has relied on a county program that provides health coverage to the working poor. But their “security blanket,” as Webb calls the Alachua County CHOICES program, is being taken away at the end of December. As new coverage provisions take effect Jan. 1 under the Affordable Care Act, the new health care law, local programs that offered barebones care to the uninsured are in flux – and with them, the lives of thousands who depend on them.
A few programs, like CHOICES and HealthShare in northern Minnesota, are shutting down. Others, such as the Appalachian Healthcare Project in Boone, N.C., and Vita Health in Palm Beach County, Fla., are scaling back the number of people they cover. Programs in Lansing, Mich., and Houston are continuing at least for now, but their future is uncertain.
As a result, many enrollees are unsure about how – or even if – they will be able to get coverage next year and what it will cost.
“It’s a big concern,” said May, 39, who despite his low income won’t qualify for government help to buy a policy in Florida’s new online marketplace under the Affordable Care Act. “What happens if the cancer returns? What will they do, just sweep me under the rug?”
The law’s framers had expected people like May who make less than the federal poverty level, or $11,500 annually for an individual, to get coverage through the health law’s expansion of Medicaid. But Florida is among about two dozen states that chose not to expand eligibility to cover everyone below 138 percent of the poverty level after the Supreme Court made it optional.
As a result, almost two-thirds of CHOICES’ enrollees will have no coverage because they earn less than the poverty level, but still too much to qualify for Medicaid. The law provides sliding scale subsidies to help people buy private insurance only if they make between 100 percent and 400 percent of the poverty level, or between $11,500 and $46,000 for an individual. Caught in the middle, they have little recourse.
“It’s a travesty because there are going to be thousands of people who are going to be stuck without any medical, dental or vision benefits,” said James Paladino, a Gainesville dentist who treats some of the program’s 4,700 enrollees. “They are going to be left out in the cold.
continued......http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/13/202068/health-care-law-imperils-some.html#.Ujd4J8akq9J