The underplayed amazing healthcare news

by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, May 2, 2014.

You wouldn’t necessarily know it from the media coverage but Thursday was an amazing day for health care in North Carolina.

Data released by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services shows that 357,000 people in the state signed up for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act  earlier this year.  The enrollment goal set for North Carolina was 200,000, which seemed ambitious given the problems with the rollout of the ACA website.

Another 74,000 people in the state signed up for Medicaid.

National reports have found that the vast majority of people who signed up for coverage were previously uninsured, which was one of the points of health care reform after all, to reduce the number of people without insurance.

Assuming that was also true in North Carolina, that means that roughly 430,000 uninsured people in the state now have coverage thanks to the health care law that many politicians are still fighting to repeal.

That’s about one third of the people without health insurance in the state, a remarkable achievement on its own and even more amazing when you consider that state lawmakers refused to make enrollment easier by setting up a state health exchange and turned down money from the federal government to facilitate the enrollment process.

The numbers could have been dramatically higher of course, if legislative leaders and Governor Pat McCrory had expanded Medicaid under the ACA. That would have provided coverage for 500,000 low income adults who currently are uninsured.

But cutting the number of people without health coverage by a third is an astounding accomplishment that will directly affect the lives of 400,000 people and their families. It’s an amazing story that deserves far more coverage than it is getting.

It’s is also worth noting who the people are who signed up for Medicaid coverage during the ACA enrollment period. They are people who already qualify for Medicaid but simply had not applied for the program most likely because they didn’t realize they were eligible.

And because they qualify under existing criteria, that means that most of them are seniors, people with a disability, children, and pregnant women—the most vulnerable people in the state.

Many politicians and right-wing pundits have criticized the increased Medicaid enrollment caused by the ACA, but it is actually something to celebrate. These are people who need help and qualify for it under criteria that federal and state officials have approved.  They need and deserve the care and now they can get it.

- See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2014/05/02/the-follies-200/#sthash.f733VzNX.dpuf