Medicaid Is A Health Safety Net Program

Medicaid is a joi8nt federal and state program. It provides health coverage to nearly 60 million Americans including children, pregnant women, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. As well as those people who are eligible to receive federally assisted income. Eligibility does however vary state to state.

Medicaid is a social health care program that covers nearly 60 million Americans, including children, pregnant women, seniors, parents and individuals suffering with disabilities. Medicaid is the biggest source of funding for health related services and medical needs for the people with low income in the United States. This program is funded jointly by the state and federal level governments, but it is the state’s responsibility to manage this program. The Medicaid program is not a required program that states have to use, but all 50 states have implemented this program. With the introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and its passing in 2010, the ACA unveiled its plans to expand Medicaid eligibility to nearly all low-income adults as an addition to the other groups that fall into the Medicaid eligibility. The Medicaid program had “many gaps in coverage for adults” because it was only restricted to the low income individuals and other people with needs in their own specific category. In the past, the majority of the states who had adults that did not have children dependent on those parents were not eligible for Medicaid. These low income adults without dependent children would be without medical insurance assistance before the ACA was introduced. Medicaid is now available to all Americans under the age of 65 whose family income is at or below the federal poverty guideline of “133 percent or $14,484 for an individual and $29,726 for a family of four in 2011” (NSCL).

Those who utilize the Medicaid system range from low income families to the over 65 age group. Within this population is also those who are disabled due to physical or mental problems. This is among the sickliest of our American population. A paper based on a study in Oregon stated that “Medicaid significantly increased the probability of being diagnosed with diabetes, and being on diabetes medication as well as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.”(Baicker et al., 2013, p. 1715). Much of this is due to the struggle that the Medicaid beneficiary has

In 2010, the President of the United States signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) into law (Luther & Hart, 2014). As written, the PPACA will be the most extensive change in the financing and provision of healthcare in 50 years (Luther & Hart, 2014). The stated purposes of the legislation are to decrease the number of medically uninsured people as well as decrease the cost of insurance and healthcare for those already insured (Shi & Singh, 2015). Medicaid expansion is significant element of the PPACA and is designed to provide health insurance to the lower income population (Vincent & Reed, 2014). The purpose of this paper

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) highlighted the importance Medicaid played in insuring every American receive healthcare coverage. (42 U.S.C., 2010) Medicaid provides health benefits to over 71 million across the country. While involvement is optional, all 50 states participate in the program and requirements differ across the nation. The flexibility given to each state has allowed them to make their own decisions to work towards improvements that they believe would best benefit their region (Feldstein, 2015, p. 125-126).

States are being pressured to expand Medicaid to families earning up to $30,000 a year, just like the Affordable Care Act permits. While several respected governors have agreed to expand the program, many other governors and state legislators are cautious. These officials do not want to deny Americans their access to health care, however they do want to slow the expansion of a program that will provide them with limited access to quality care while destroying state budgets. One of the strongest arguments that can be made against the expansion of Medicaid is the fact that States simply can not afford it. The appeal to states to expand Medicaid is that the federal government will cover 100% of the cost through 2016 and eventually lowering to

Why is Medicaid a huge topic in Texas and how does it relate to me? This is one important question to consider. Well, this paper will help shed light on the matter and illustrate the urgency for such an action. Just recently Texas had an option to extend Medicaid, but hastily decline to expand it. Medicaid expansion was part of the Health Care Reform or also known as the Obama Care; the federal government gave the 52 states an offer to expand the current Medicaid in ways that would include the coverage of more children and lower income adults as well. The latest on the issue is Texas had just agreed on a deal to reinstate Medicaid temporarily. The agreement on the reform has given Texas some time to see how the plan fairs across the other

Medicaid and Medicare are two programs that are very different but share the same instance of being federally run programs. Both Medicaid and Medicare were created in 1965 in response to the fact that older and lower income people could not buy private insurance. Medicaid is dispersed individually by each state in which is primary role is to cover low income people who do not have the financial means to purchase healthcare on their own. On the other hand Medicare is paid into by everyone that works a legal job where taxes are deducted. Medicare was created to address the issues of elderly; typically people 65 years or older; having extremely high healthcare bills but limited personal funding. These people will typically pay part of the cost

Medicaid is a federal and state program that helps with medical costs for some people who have a low income and limited resources. Medicaid is the largest source of funding for medical and health related issues in the United States. It provides medical care for nearly 60 million Americans (Medicaid History). Even though the program is joint between federal and state, the state decides how someone could be eligible for Medicaid.

In 1965, President Johnson signed Title XIX of the Social Security Amendments, which enacted Medicare and Medicaid (CMS, n.d.). Now, Medicaid is the single largest publically funded health coverage in the United States. The Medicaid program is federally and state funded. Currently, Medicaid covers 70 million Americans. Over 33 million children, 19 million low-income adults, and 16 million elderly or disabled persons are insured through the program. Medicaid also provides assistance to select Medicare beneficiaries, which is currently about 10 million individuals. Long-term care assistance is also a role of Medicaid, with 1.5 million institutional and 2.9 million community-based residents assisted. As visualized in Figure 1, of the almost 70

States who chose to expand Medicaid will expand to cover “resident with incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level (Glied & Ma, 2013, p. 1). In order to encourage states to participate in Medicaid expansion the federal government will cover 100 percent of this cost associated with the expansion until the year 2016. Staring in 2016 the federal government will then “phase down” support. “However, by 2020, the federal government will still pay 90 percent of the costs (Glied & Ma, 2013, p. 1). As of August of 2014 twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia were implementing the Medicaid expansion. Two states are still in an open debate and twenty-one states are not moving forward with expansion (Status of State Action on the Medicaid Expansion Decision, 2014). The state of Ohio is one of the states that has decided to move forward with Medicaid expansion. “Ohio is expanding Medicaid coverage to low-income adults effective January 1, 2014” (Medicaid.gov).

Medicare and Medicaid are two of the United States largest broken systems, which must sustain themselves in order to provide care to their beneficiaries. Both Medicare and Medicaid are funding by a joint effort between the federal government and the local state government. If and when these governments choose to cut funding or reduce spending, Medicare and Medicaid take the biggest hit. Most people see these two benefits as one in the same, two benefits the government takes out of their pay check to help fund health care. While the government does deduct a sum from paychecks everywhere, Medicare and Medicaid are very two very different programs.

I agree with you, Medicaid has provided coverage to individuals and families with low incomes and few resources. In fact, Medicaid coverage includes various other programs for the betterment of the people such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (ESPDT), The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act (TWWIIA) of 1999 and The New Freedom Initiative. For instance, CHIP offers health insurance coverage for uninsured children. EPSDT offers healthcare benefits like prevention, early detection, and treatment to children under age twenty-one. TWWIIA provides healthcare services to workers with disabilities. The New Freedom Initiative reduces barriers to full community integration

I have learned that health care insurance coverage is an important issue for all the people living in the United States. In 1915 and 1920 the State tried to coordinated government health insurance, however it never took place. In the 1930s the federal level tried to coordinated government health insurance and the same thing happen, it never took place as well. Later on in the late 1930s people who were able form a health insurance coverage so they are able to protect themselves and their family due to high cost out-of-pocket co-payment. In 1965 Social Security Act adopted Medicare and Medicaid to provide health coverage services for children and mother thought-out the United States. I realize that Medicaid is mainly for needy people to help them get the best health care and to educate them to live a long and healthy life.

The Medicaid is the program that provide funding for medical and health-related services to people of low-income families who either have no medical insurance or have inadequate medical insurance. Medicaid eligible recipients include children, the elderly and patients with disability. It is funded by a combination of both state and federal governments. Total healthcare spending in America is about $2.7 trillion annually on healthcare, or 17% of GDP and with the reform initiatives under Affordable Care Act, the number of people covered for insurance and the amount spent will grow dramatically and it is also estimated that fraud added as much as $98 billion to Medicaid and Medicare spending annually. No evidence was available to say