LEHIGH VALLEY MORNING CALL: …Both sides agree that hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians — 305,000 by 2016, according to the council’s report — would be covered by an expanded Medicaid program. As it stands, nearly all of those people are uninsured, because they do not qualify for the existing Medicaid program under Pennsylvania’s rules, nor do they qualify for health-insurance subsidies under the federal law.
Because the state didn’t expand Medicaid beginning in January, thousands of medical events will not happen this year, the report says — 11,100 mammograms, 824,000 visits to physicians and 44,400 cholesterol screenings. It also says Pennsylvania typically has 13,700 people who amass catastrophic out-of-pocket health-care costs every year because they’re uninsured.
On a larger level, the report says Pennsylvania will have bypassed $2.4 billion in additional federal spending this year by rejecting expansion funding — money that could have fueled 7,900 extra jobs. The costs would pile up in 2015 and beyond without expansion, it says… (more)
Thank you for your continuing coverage of health issues especially Medicaid.
You may want to inform your readers that Southeast Lancaster Health Services and Welsh Mountain provide services to the uninsured.