Manchin’s Inflation Deal Omits Health Insurance Help for Low Income People

• Democrats in Congress are poised to start voting on the inflation deal this weekend.
• However, the agreement does not expand health insurance for people whose incomes are close to the poverty level.
• About 800,000 Floridians remain uninsured and the next coverage may not come until 2024.

When Democrats in Congress announced last year that they were working on a massive spending bill to transform America’s social safety net, health care advocates in Florida questioned how to bring health insurance to more people. I was optimistic that there might eventually be

But last week their hopes were dashed. One of the many items on the agenda in his $740 billion Inflation Cuts Act, a Democratic compromise, is a provision that bypasses Republican legislators to expand Medicaid to about 800,000 Florida residents. was.

Many in particular are worried about the recession, with residents already facing high costs at grocery stores and gas stations, as well as rising rents, health care advocates say.

“It’s definitely a missed opportunity, especially when everything centers around inflation and the impact of inflation,” Scott Darius, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Florida Voices for Health, told Insider. Told.

Florida is one of 12 Republican-led states that have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Under the law, the state covers 10% of the cost and the federal government covers 90% of the tab.

Florida’s chances of expanding Medicaid are unlikely until 2024 at the earliest. Health care advocates and Democrats in Florida have little faith that Republicans in the state legislature will change their stance on Medicaid expansion, so put the issue on the ballot in the 2024 election and ask voters directly. I hope

“The ballot measure is our best chance to pass the expansion of Medicaid,” Miami Gardens Democrat Sen. Shevlin Jones, who sits on the state Senate’s Health Policy Committee, told Insider.

“This should be a top priority for us, but Republicans have shown time and time again that they are not interested in what makes sense,” Jones added. I’m interested in what feeds the base.”

In 2021, President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package tried to soften the Medicaid deal by covering the state’s costs for two years, but Florida still wouldn’t take it. . Republican Governor Ron. DeSantis’ office “continues to oppose the expansion of Medicaid in Florida,” he told The Washington Post in March 2021.

The governor’s office and several other Republican leaders in the state legislature did not respond to insider questions about whether conditions such as the recession could change their stance on the expansion of Medicaid.

Republicans have expressed concern about the rising health care burden, citing fears that the federal government will one day recoup Medicaid payments.

Palm Harbor Republican House Speaker Chris Sproles believes Medicaid should only apply to the most vulnerable residents, not based on income, he told the Orlando Sentinel in March 2021. Told.

Under Obamacare, anyone with $13,590 or less for an individual or $27,750 for a family of four is eligible to enroll in Medicaid. This is contested by Republicans given that it doesn’t take into account disability or work status.

Pastor Vanessa Tinsley, executive director of Bridge to Hope, a Miami-based community organization that provides services including meal programs, said the stories about people on Medicaid were not true. Many of the clients she serves have jobs and college degrees.

Florida has raised its minimum wage, he added, but it hasn’t kept up with rising rents. One of her big medical problems could evaporate savings and pay raises, she said.

US House version of Biden’s agenda cuts price tag by more than half

For more than a year, Democrats in Congress sought ways to circumvent Republican lawmakers in Medicaid holdout states. If so, an estimated 4 million uninsured people nationwide will have access to Medicaid.

The US House of Representatives’ $2 Trillion Build Back Better Act, passed in November 2021, has come up with a solution to close the Medicaid gap. It would have paid full premiums for private health insurance for those with incomes close to the poverty level.

But that provision was one of many that were removed to create the Inflation Reduction Act, but the bill would also address drug pricing and private health insurance for high-income people who aren’t eligible for Medicaid. Retained other medical policies.

The bill can still change. Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock plans to introduce an amendment to help those without access to Medicaid. He presents his amendments in a “vote-a-rama,” a marathon session of amendment votes that may change the final draft of the bill. The Senate is considering an inflation deal starting Saturday.

Florida Voices for Health is working with Southerners to expand Medicaid and is lobbying Congress this week to endorse Warnock’s amendment.

But conservative Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kirsten Cinema of Arizona are wary of raising the bill. His one estimate from the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the Medicaid idea from the Build Back Better Act could cost the federal government her $125 billion.

“We may have to get creative”

Without a federal solution or immediate vote, the fate of Medicaid will rest in the hands of state legislators or voters.

Bridge to Hope’s Tinsley said he was “fearing” a recession given he was already seeing people in crisis. She talks about families whose parents can’t get married because otherwise their child won’t be eligible for Medicaid, people who skip the medicine they need, or people who can’t afford health insurance and have to borrow their child’s inhaler. I know a father who has asthma.

“People in my foodline used to be donors and volunteers,” Tinsley said. “Our resources are shrinking.”

Not being able to pay for medical bills makes people’s situation worse, she said. And many people in Florida who have to cut back on spending can only do so by lowering their grocery bills, she added. , causes problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure, and increases people’s medical costs.

DeSantis is seeking re-election in Florida and is expected to win given that Republicans in Florida outnumber Democrats in the state by 220,000. The Democrats running for the nomination in the Aug. 23 primary — Rep. Charlie Christo and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nicky Freed — support expanding Medicaid.

Jones will be the first choice on August 23rd. But this round, he said he wanted to see if there was a way to reach a bipartisan deal, especially after hospitals and health insurers banded together, as other Republican-led states have done.

“We may have to get creative,” he said.