The red states in the deep south may be ready to accept Medicade expansion reports Sarah Kliff at VOX.
The Deep South might finally be warming up to Obamacare.
Both Alabama and Louisiana are inching toward expanding Medicaid to cover thousands more Americans. Taken together, the two states could expand coverage to more than 330,000 low-income people. And they could mark the beginning of the end for a region that has steadfastly refused to cooperate on President Obama’s health coverage expansion.
This could be really big and pretty well end further Republican attempts to kill the law. Arizona has already accepted it. Texas is under pressure from it’s large hospital industry to accept it because they are losing money. In Georgia and other southern states rural hospitals are closing because without Medicade expansion they can’t afford to remain open.
Thirty states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid under Obamacare, offering public coverage to people who earn less than 133 percent of the poverty line (about $14,000 for an individual or $32,000 for a family of four). Twenty states have not participated in the program, leaving millions of Americans in a “coverage gap”: They earn too little to qualify for subsidized private insurance but don’t have a Medicaid option available, either.
The leaders of these states are beginning to realize that ideology does not trump losing dollars from the Federal Government.