As Governors Testify at House Hearing about Medicaid, 130 Diverse Organizations Urge Congress to Oppose Weakening the Affordable Care Act

Low State-by-State Medicaid Eligibility Standards Leave Many Millions Uninsured and Demonstrate Need for the Affordable Care Act’s Improvements

Washington, D.C.—As the House Energy and Commerce Committee holds a hearing today with several governors about the Affordable Care Act, 130 diverse national organizations are sending a letter urging House members “to stand firm and vigorously oppose any efforts to weaken” the law’s provisions regarding Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

The 130 signatory organizations include the health consumer organization Families USA, the American Nurses Association, the National Association of Community Health Centers, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Diabetes Association, the National Council on Aging, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association, Easter Seals, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and Voices for America’s Children.

“Millions of low-income people are denied Medicaid coverage and remain uninsured due to most states’ miserly eligibility standards,” said Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA. “The Affordable Care Act corrects this problem, and—if our nation is committed to expanding health coverage to the 50 million uninsured Americans today—we must strengthen, not weaken, our public safety net programs.”

The miserly Medicaid eligibility standards are illustrated by the states of two of the governors who are testifying at today’s hearing:

• In Mississippi today, parents are ineligible for Medicaid if their family incomes exceed 44 percent of the federal poverty level—a mere $8,135 in annual income for a family of three. Childless adults are ineligible even if they are literally penniless.
  
  
• In Utah today, parents are also ineligible for Medicaid if their incomes exceed 44 percent of poverty, and childless adults are excluded from the program even if they are penniless. Utah, however, has a Primary Care Network waiver that provides limited primary care services to adults with incomes up to 150 percent of poverty—but it provides no specialty care and, in any event, the program is currently closed to potential applicants. 

Nationwide, among the 50 states, the median Medicaid income eligibility standard for parents is a mere 62 percent of poverty. Numerous states’ eligibility standards for parents are even lower than those in Mississippi and Utah—such as Alabama (24 percent of poverty), Arkansas (17 percent), Idaho (27 percent), Indiana (25 percent), Kansas (32 percent), Louisiana (25 percent), Missouri (25 percent), Pennsylvania (34 percent), Texas (26 percent), Virginia (29 percent), and West Virginia (33 percent).

In more than four out of five states, childless adults are entirely shut out of Medicaid coverage, regardless of their income. Michigan, one of the few states that provides some coverage for childless adults, limits such coverage to people with incomes below 35 percent of poverty ($5,149 for a couple, $3,812 for a person living alone).

“If our nation is seriously committed to expanding health coverage for people with limited means, eligibility for Medicaid must be expanded—and the Affordable Care Act achieves that by 2014,” said Pollack. “It makes no sense to go backwards in the intervening years.

“We recognize governors’ fiscal concerns. But governors need to recognize that the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion is fully funded by the federal government from 2014 through 2016 and overwhelmingly federally funded thereafter.

“Governors also need to recognize the impact on state economies of leaving large numbers of people uninsured. Without insurance, people delay care until they are sicker and, when they ultimately seek care, the costs are much more expensive for hospitals and safety net institutions, often paid exclusively with state tax dollars.

“Additionally, state reductions in Medicaid coverage cause fewer federal dollars to go to those states, thereby harming state economies by taking away jobs, wages, and business activity. In these times, it makes little sense to cause such harm to state economies,” Pollack said.

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Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

1201 New York Avenue NW, Suite 1100 · Washington, DC 20005
202-628-3030 · Email: info@familiesusa.org · www.familiesusa.org