Government-Sponsored Healthcare Plans: Comparison between Two States
Depending on which side of the Mississippi River you reside in, you may be eligible or not eligible for Medicaid. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), most of the states, including the District of Columbia, agreed to expand the federal-state health cover program that helps low-income residents (Buchmueller, Levy, & Valletta 2018). Unlike the state of Illinois, Missouri legislators decided not to expand their Medicaid cover.
Initially, the ACA stipulated that all citizens who earned up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level were eligible for Medicaid (Buchmueller et al. 2018). However, a 2012 Supreme Court ruling left the choice of expansion to states. The state of Illinois decided to expand, and in turn, allowed close to 700,000 people under the cover. On the other hand, Missouri decided not to grow, and recent data show that hundreds of thousands of its residents are in a terrible predicament, limited by the geographical divide (Buchmueller et al. 2018).
A recent study concluded that Medicaid expansion has reduced mortality rates significantly (Buchmueller et al. 2018). According to the researchers, while Missouri was losing an additional 200 deaths, the state of Illinois averted more than three hundred deaths annually. Comparative analysis between other states that expanded and those that did not show the same trend. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
The wake of this study depicts an odd twist in the way government-sponsored healthcare plans has turned out. The arbitrary geographical divides have become a tangible divisive tool in the administration of Medicaid despite Americans suffering the same economic strife. One may choose to cross over to the other state to be eligible for Medicaid, but in the process, other questions arise. Where would you go? How will you sustain your livelihood considering the poor state of health?
References
Buchmueller, T. C., Levy, H., & Valletta, R. G. (2018). The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid Expansion and Unemployment. Working paper.