Medicaid decision looms for Va. in health care debate, By Michael Martz, June 17, 2012, Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Nothing is more important to health care reform in Virginia than expansion of Medicaid. With an estimated 1 million Virginians uninsured, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would make up to 425,000 people in the state eligible for Medicaid health coverage beginning on Jan. 1, 2014. As the U.S. Supreme Court nears a decision within two weeks on the constitutionality of the 2-year-old law, Virginia is preparing for an outcome that would leave most of the act intact, even if the “individual mandate,” requiring that almost all Americans have insurance, is overturned. “If all we get out of the Affordable Care Act is the Medicaid expansion, that wouldn’t be a bad thing in terms of coverage for people,” said Deborah A. Oswalt, executive director of the Virginia Health Care Foundation. The expansion would most benefit parents who aren’t eligible now if they earn more than 24 percent of the federal poverty level. . .”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty