FAILURE TO EXPAND MEDICAID DOESN’T JUST AFFECT THOSE WHO NEED IT
By Liz Gunn || November is National Prematurity Awareness month. First up, the good news. According to the March of Dimes, premature birth rates dropped to 11.4 percent last year – the lowest rate in nearly 20 years. The bad news for SC? States expanding Medicaid are likely to see the biggest decrease, according to research from the Guttmacher Institute.
Whether it’s expanding Medicaid or the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it only makes sense that giving people more access to insurance is having an impact on this issue as well as others. ACA prevents women from paying more for insurance based solely on gender and outlaws insurance companies from disqualifying people based on pre-existing conditions. In South Carolina, we have a coverage gap that includes about 200,000 people who do not qualify for subsidies or Medicaid under the current law.
For a state that is so deeply “red” that last week’s election was declared a downright bloodbath against Democrats, where is the party of family values now? Where is the party that fights so hard to protect unborn children?
The fiscal concern is there too, of course. Pregnant women, insured or not, will end up at the hospital when it’s time to have their baby. Thanks to Ronald Reagan’s Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, the hospital must deliver these babies. Who do think pays for that? Not the woman who can’t afford health insurance. Certainly not the hospital. Those costs are passed on to the rest of us who are fortunate enough to have health insurance.
By not expanding Medicaid, South Carolina is allowing these 200,000 people to remain uninsured, and to remain a burden to taxpayers when they need medical care. South Carolina is also passing up an estimated 40,000 jobs that the expansion would create.
The South Carolina Hospital Association points out the annual impact expansion would have. Over the course of the next six years, if South Carolina was to expand Medicaid, the state match required would be $442.2 million. Our state’s administrative cost would be $192.6 million. The state tax revenue generated, however, would be $644.1 million. This gives South Carolina $9.3 million in revenue from the Medicaid program.
I am admittedly no math whiz. My eyes glaze over immediately when I hear the words “health insurance”. So if someone can explain to me in real terms, without party talking points, why we aren’t doing this I would greatly appreciate it.
When I was pregnant I saw my doctor all too often. I saw him as much as any woman does during pregnancy, but then more often when complications began. You see, at 26 weeks I began having pre-term labor. I shudder to think what might have happened had I not been insured and empowered to march right into my doctors office at the first sign of a problem.
In a heavily saturated Republican state, with a conservative, Republican Governor – why are we preventing these women and unborn children from getting the access to health care they so desperately need? Where is the outrage for the unborn now? I guess it should come as no surprise that the majority of the states not expanding at this time are at the bottom of the list of the healthiest states in America. (S.C. is sitting pretty at 46.)
Liz Gunn is a wife, mom, travel enthusiast, food snob, daydreamer and lifelong Gamecock fan. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, she lives in Columbia, S.C. with her husband and daughter.
38 comments
South Carolina has always given pregnant women the shaft. Example- until the ACA, insurance companies in SC did not have to offer maternity coverage to women in their private insurance plans. Therefore, literally no private health insurance plan offered maternity coverage at any price. This meant that if you were self employed or your employer did not provide insurance, you could not get maternity coverage unless you quit working long enough to qualify for Medicaid. I suspect many women had to do just that in order to get the birth covered.
and yet we wonder why we’re at the bottom in everything…
You are NOT being truthful. A poor mother qualifies for Medicaid and all the services the mother and child need.
Ever heard of ‘Medicaid For Pregnant Women’? The income threshold for this program is so high a middle-class woman qualifies.
Just a shame that 1.2 MILLION abortions is not enough for you liberals.
In regards to the expansion of Medicaid in states. Who really believes the federal government is going to keep its promise to fund this 100% going forward. Is it kinda like if you like your doctor you can keep him/her? This expansion of Medicaid will end up bankrupting some states (see North Carolina a decade ago with the influx of hispanics).
You people are fools. Abort away gang. You got fucked by the voters last Tuesday. They have had enough of the lies and perversion from the ‘left’.
perfect answer…not a single fact presented.
Just anger…venom..fear…hatred
The nice lady asked for facts without rhetoric.
of course, you are incapable and unable to deliver…
I gave her FACTS!!!! ‘Paid Medicaid for Pregnant Women’.
She appears to be a nice lady-just uninformed like most pro-abortion women.
I’m not pro-abortion. Please don’t act like you know me.
pro-choice=pro-abortion….save it
so you’re anti-choice for women. good for you.
I guess I have always wondered what ‘choice’ the unborn child would make…with those beating little hearts and tiny little fingers etc…
How sad that our society has so devalued the sanctity of life that a child is no longer safe in a mother’s womb, that we have elected a pResident that has been an advocate for infanticide (partial-birth abortion) and our nationalized health care will rely on ‘death panels’ to eliminate those that are a financial burden on society.
Abort away. It is the law. SCOTUS says so.
Do you have any idea how hypocritical that is? Never mind. I know the answer.
No one is pro abortion. It is a devastating decision for all involved. I think everyone can agree ignorant fucks like you are pro ignorant and proud of it. If only you had been aborted the world would be a better place.
Bullshit. For a single mom it’s less than $23,000 a year. For a family of four it’s a combined income of $46K. Most economists agree that middle class only begins (so the bottom half) at $25,500. True middle class is closer to $50,000. But keep spitting out talking points than mean nothing to anyone but you.
$50 GRAND a year and FREE health care in SC? Damn good deal.
Why don’t you try it then -tell us how glorious life is on LESS than $50,000 a year while feeding a family of 4. You can live in an apartment, because you won’t be able to secure a loan for a house. You’ll be in a bad neighborhood where you have to worry about your safety and the safety of your children. You and your spouse will both work full time and fight a lot about money. You’ll never go out to eat. You’ll never buy new clothes. You’ll never see a movie in a theater. But it will be so awesome to get free healthcare. Gee, we should all reduce our salaries so we can enjoy this lifestyle too!
Really? 4,000 a month/1,000 house payment. 200 in utilities.600 a month for food. 1000 insurance etc…200 car payment…
Got a 1,000 to play with…
I’m assuming you’re a male, diamond”Jim” … women do not take the idea of abortion lightly. It is a decision based on health or economics. You want a world without abortion/contraception?
Read what happened here where it’s illegal to have contraception/abortion:
“Abortion in the Philippines is an illegal and punishable act, with no
exceptions even on the grounds of endangering a woman’s life, rape, or
foetal impairment. The minimum prison term for an abortion is six
months, and the maximum six years. ”
http://www.irinnews.org/report/84021/philippines-illegal-abortions-the-risks-and-the-misery
“Some women interviewed try to refuse sex with their partners as a way to avoid pregnancy, but many
describe how this puts strains on their relationships and in some cases, even leads to sexual violence”
http://reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/Philippines%20Summary.pdf
Some women interviewed try to refuse sex with their
partners as a way to avoid pregnancy, but many
describe how this puts strains on their relationshi
ps and in some cases, even leads to sexual violence
:
Some women interviewed try to refuse sex with their
partners as a way to avoid pregnancy, but many
describe how this puts strains on their relationshi
ps and in some cases, even leads to sexual violence
: (i have many more links if interested, on women’s sexual abuse and abandonment because of contraception/abortion bans)
and here: “Latin America’s Zero Tolerance Policy on Abortion”
“…Imagine suffering a miscarriage. … Statistically 15-25% of women in childbearing years will suffer a miscarriage anywhere from 5 to 20 weeks gestation. In the United States, when we suffer a miscarriage we go to the hospital. … If this would have occurred in certain Latin American countries, especially in El Salvador, Chile, Colombia, Malta, Nicaragua, and even Mexico, the emergency room doctor would notify the authorities of my miscarriage and I would be arrested and jailed anywhere from 3-50 years for having an “abortion.” …”
http://feminismandreligion.com/2011/10/06/criminalizing-miscarriages-latin-america%E2%80%99s-zero-tolerance-policy-on-abortion-by-michele-stopera-freyhauf/
Hitler would be proud of the ‘culture of death’ the left and Democrat Party have created in this country.
Over 60 MILLION children have been aborted since Roe v.Wade.
Abortion and contraception are not the same thing. Look it up.
I have always said – if men could get pregnant, abortion wouldn’t even be an issue. They would be as routine as getting your teeth cleaned. Women who are put in a position to make that choice and subsequently live with it do not deserve the judgement they receive from a bunch of men who have NO clue what that must feel like.
More interestingly…why do we keep voting in politicians that keep us firmly ensconced at the bottom of everything?
“…Thanks to Ronald Reagan’s Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act..”.
You write that as if you think we should repeal it?!? (And you wrote the next sentence as if we could read your mind since you’re missing a word or two)
“…why are we preventing these women and unborn children from getting the access to health care they so desperately need?”
Exactly who is denying what to whom? Are there armed guards with machine guns preventing poor people from getting to the doctor’s office or the hospital? It this a “health care” issue or an insurance issue? Or is it possibly just a pricing issue? why does a freaking “well visit” cost so much?
no I meant that genuinely, THANKS to RR. If not for him, our health care in SC would be even more of a mess.
Poverty is denying them access, that’s what.They can’t afford it. It’s definitely a pricing issue! I believe that is part of ACA aims to fix…although like I said, I don’t claim to have read the lengthy act or be well versed in insurance.
A pregnant woman can’t go to the ER once a month, then once every two weeks, then once ever week when she is pregnant, like I was fortunate enough to do. Pre-natal care is non existent for uninsured. When I did have my baby – there was a lady who came in to deliver hers who had not seen a doctor one time throughout the nine months. How sad.
Not only can they go to the ER once an month or more, many do. There are multiple “crisis pregnancy centers”, adoption agencies and birth homes all over the state.
I have worked with Daybreak Ministries for several years – anyone that doesn’t get care does it of their own volition or out of their own stupidity. Sorry if that offends – no, Hell I’m not.
All that federal money going to Planned Parenthood ALLEGEDLY for pre-natal services and they apparently don’t want to provide those services.
Ya know why? They find ways to get around the Hyde Amendment that says federal dollars can’t pay for abortions. They do -Planned Parenthood is like the ‘mob’ and just cook the books to shift the money around. They performed over 300,000 abortions last year.
The Democrat Party would not exist without advocating abortion.
“The Democrat Party would not exist without advocating abortion.”
Were that true, then it couldn’t be true. One would see they would die out in a few generations.
“They performed over 300,000 abortions last year.”
300K children that would all have grown up to business owners and fine upstanding members of their community, I’m sure. I mean they weren’t even wanted by their mother, but I’m certain the rest of the world would have opened their doors to them.
Abortion is a BILLION $$$$ industry and is a ‘religion’ to the ‘left’.
They are NOT going to give up any of that money to help the unborn or their mothers.
Thank you for your work.
“Where is the party that fights so hard to protect unborn children?”
Biggest bunch of hypocrites to ever inhabit Planet Earth . . .
Isn’t the republican party solely responsible for the deaths of over 150 SC children via DSS?
No. The party responsible for the deaths of over 150 children is the abusive parent/guardian.
I’d love to own a Ferrari. But I can’t afford the insurance on it, much less the maintenance, so I won’t get one.
If I couldn’t afford to even pay for the birth of a child (you know..the cheapest part of having a kid), I certainly wouldn’t have one.
Before my husband and I started a family, I actually investigated the Ob/Gyn and Hospital costs. Then we made sure we had maternity insurance coverage. Then we conceived a child. Just sayin’
I respect that. But to expect that kind of responsible behavior from everyone is setting yourself up to be let down. Aside from having a baby, all these uninsured people can also get cancer or some other life threatening disease which of course they would then go the ER for. I really only bring up the babies because it’s National Prematurity Month and because unborn babies is something Repubs usually fight hard for.
The answer is not more money for Medicaid. We had a great system which took care of all people who could afford it and free care from physicians for those who could not. In 1972, the whole government gifted those with gigantic kidney machine bills and cancer bills with payment for them. It was called Medicaid. Since then, the “perfect” system has been corrupted by adding on to it. When you incentivise bad behavior, especially with desperate socialist legislators who need votes, you get bad behavior. Ending Obamacare and replacing it with an SR-22 – like insurance policy for the truly needy, no-drop on sickness, and loser-pays law suits, we can regain a market-based health system which used to be the finest system in the world.
Yep. There always have been and always will be people who behave irresponsibly. However, at some point the shame in having a baby without means to support it became passé. In fact, in certain cultures here in America, it’s quite a status symbol to have a baby without being married. Sure, I know “accidents” happen. But if a person is so irresponsible to have a baby without means to pay the medical bill, are they going to be responsible to raise a child properly?
@Lyz – just curious – If S.C. expands Medicaid which will create 40,000 jobs, are these federal bureaucrat jobs?
You know I’m not sure. I would hope this number (that I’ve seen in multiple places, but has never been explained) is more health care jobs. To me it makes sense that more insured people = need for more health care workers. But what do I know?
My guess is that these 40,000 new jobs are federal paper pushers. That would be roughly 1 new worker for every 4 newly covered patients. The reason I say that is your comment that these 200,000 uninsured people are the burden of taxpayers which tells me they are getting healthcare/prenatal care even though THEY are not paying for it.
Gruber,the Obamacare architect, is the one that advised and sold these governor’s the lies to expand Medicaid.
Thank you Nikki for doing your homework.