Medicaid is the only source of health care coverage for 62 million people at or near poverty, people who don't have jobs that offer health benefits, can't afford health insurance, or are too sick to find a private plan.
Medicaid covers about one-third of America's children, some parents, pregnant women, poor people with disabilities, and poor, elderly people in nursing homes. Incomes as low as $5,000 a year can disqualify a person for Medicaid in some states. The federal and state governments, which jointly finance and manage the program, spent $404.1 billion on Medicaid in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2010. That number has surely risen since as more than 10 million people joined the program since June 2007 during the recession and sluggish recovery.
Federal law requires hospitals to treat anyone who arrives at an emergency room but doctors' offices aren't under the same obligation. Free clinics and charities are overtaxed by the 50 million Americans without health insurance and others who can't afford what their insurance doesn't cover.
"There's a hope that private charity [and] churches will rally, friends and family will rally. They'll do what needs to be done. But the truth of the matter is, those resources are pretty limited," said Karen Davis, the president of the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based institution that researches health care. "There's so many people, it just becomes overwhelming."
The effects of dropping millions from coverage would be severe, immediate, and lasting. Uninsured people skip doctor visits and medications to treat chronic ailments and don't get screenings that would detect diseases early, Davis said. Financial ruin also can follow. When people finally feel sick enough to rush to the hospital, they rack up medical bills they can't pay and wind up being hounded by debt collectors, she said.
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