Nebraska Voters Could Expand Medicaid Under Obamacare
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What the Initiative Does
Nebraska Initiative 427 would require the state government to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) by making eligible persons under the age of 65, whose incomes equal or fall below 138 percent of the federal poverty line (which in 2018 amounts to $16,753 for an individual or $34,638 for a family of four).
If passed, the Nebraska Dept. of Health and Human Services would be required to filed a state expansion plan with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on or before April 1, 2019.
In Favor
Expanding Medicaid would help more low-income Nebraska residents without insurance get covered and access the healthcare system.
Opposed
It would be unwise to expand Nebraska’s Medicaid program, which is already struggling to provide quality care to low-income Nebraskans.
In-Depth
A group known as Insure The Good Life is campaigning in favor of expanding Medicaid in Nebraska, writing:
“Medicaid expansion would cover 90,000 hard-working Nebraskans. They work at jobs that come without health care coverage and earn less than $17,000 a year. These are Nebraskans living across the state in both rural and urban areas in jobs in restaurants and shops, in home health care, on construction sites, on farms and ranches, and more.”
Jessica Shelburn, director of Americans for Prosperity-Nebraska, argued against expanding the state Medicaid program:
“Expanding Medicaid is not what our state needs. This proposal will make a bad problem worse by further straining a broken Medicaid program that already struggles to provide quality health care services for Nebraska’s most vulnerable citizens. We should be reforming Medicaid to make it work better for our most vulnerable populations, instead of exposing our state to massive tax increases and cuts to essential government services.”
Initiative 427 made the Nebraska ballot after 104,477 valid signatures were submitted, more than the 84,908 signatures required.
Under Obamacare, states were given the ability to expand their Medicaid program to cover individuals earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level with financial assistance from the federal government that decreased over time. From 2014-2016, the federal government covered 100% of the cost of expansion, which dropped to 95% in 2017 and is set to continue decreasing gradually to 90% in 2020.
— Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: iStock.com / LPETTET)
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