{"id":3288,"date":"2020-08-21T16:02:49","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T16:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3288"},"modified":"2020-08-21T16:02:49","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T16:02:49","slug":"covid-19-is-pushing-red-states-to-finally-expand-medicaid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3288","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19 is pushing red states to finally expand Medicaid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\n\n&#8220;For the second time this summer, voters in a solidly Republican state have decided now is the moment to expand Medicaid coverage through the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/8\/5\/21353985\/missouri-primary-election-2020-medicaid-expansion-results\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Missouri voters passed<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid during Tuesday\u2019s primary elections; 53 percent of voters supported the measure and 47 percent opposed it. That vote comes about a month after Oklahoma voters also decided to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Oklahoma_State_Question_802,_Medicaid_Expansion_Initiative_(June_2020)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>expand Medicaid via ballot referendum<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;by less than 1 percentage point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once the expansion takes effect in those two states next year, an estimated 340,000 people who currently have no affordable health insurance option will become eligible for Medicaid. That still leaves&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/medicaid\/issue-brief\/the-coverage-gap-uninsured-poor-adults-in-states-that-do-not-expand-medicaid\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>nearly 2 million people<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;in 12 states nationwide who are stuck in the Medicaid expansion gap \u2014 ineligible for coverage because their state refuses to expand the program but with an income too low to qualify for tax credits to buy private insurance \u2014 but it is yet another step toward the universal Medicaid expansion Obamacare authors envisioned. In the last few years, voters in Idaho, Maine, Nebraska, and Utah have also approved Medicaid expansion via ballot initiative.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/8\/5\/21355515\/missouri-oklahoma-medicaid-expansion-vote-results-covid-19\">https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/8\/5\/21355515\/missouri-oklahoma-medicaid-expansion-vote-results-covid-19<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;For the second time this summer, voters in a solidly Republican state have decided now is the moment to expand Medicaid coverage through the Affordable Care Act.<br \/>\nMissouri voters passed a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid during Tuesday\u2019s primary elections; 53 percent of voters supported the measure and 47 percent opposed it. That vote comes about a month after Oklahoma voters also decided to expand Medicaid via ballot referendum by less than 1 percentage point.<\/p>\n<p>Once the expansion takes effect in those two states next year, an estimated 340,000 people who currently have no affordable health insurance option will become eligible for Medicaid. That still leaves nearly 2 million people in 12 states nationwide who are stuck in the Medicaid expansion gap \u2014 ineligible for coverage because their state refuses to expand the program but with an income too low to qualify for tax credits to buy private insurance \u2014 but it is yet another step toward the universal Medicaid expansion Obamacare authors envisioned. In the last few years, voters in Idaho, Maine, Nebraska, and Utah have also approved Medicaid expansion via ballot initiative.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[588,409,483,341],"class_list":["post-3288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-corona","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-medicaid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3289,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3288\/revisions\/3289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}