The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid Expansion
Student: Chintan Rupareliya
Instructor: David Silverman
Seminar in Healthcare Administration
April 18, 2013
In 1965, Medicaid was created under Title XIX of the Social Security Act which is funded by both the state and federal government. It was established to assist low-income or below poverty level families in providing health care services for themselves and their children. Currently, the Medicaid program is voluntary for every state but all states have decided to participate and must follow certain federal rules. These rules include coverage for children under six and pregnant women who fall under the income level of 133% Federal Poverty Level (FPL) or $14,856 per person and $30,657 for a family of four. The program also has to include individuals aged 6-18 at or below 100% FPL, the elderly and disabled, and other caretakers/individuals that meet eligibility requirements and qualify to get Medicaid. (Musumeci, 2012)
The purpose of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to require that all states include roughly all non-disabled individuals below age 65 with household incomes below the 133% FPL starting in January of 2014. By 2019, the Medicaid Expansion would’ve covered approximately 16 million uninsured Americans who have a low income and who would have not been covered in all these years. Currently states do not include adults without dependent children and only includes parents with low incomes. The ACA proposal was if states decided to opt in the Medicaid expansion, then the government will cover 100% of the costs of the expansion starting from 2014 to 2016 and all the way up till 2020, but then it will progressively decrease its share to cover 90% of the costs after 2020. (Musumeci, 2012)
After the Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010, twenty-six states filed lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the federal district court...