Huffington Magazine Issue 88 | Page 53

HUFFINGTON 02.16.14 TOO POOR FOR OBAMACARE poverty level, which is $27,570 for a family of five. Even the unemployment benefits will run out in March. ‘PEOPLE BREAK DOWN IN TEARS’ Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) launched his political career in 2009 as a health care reform antagonist. Originally, he opposed the Medicaid expansion, but he then changed his mind. Last year, Scott and the majority-Republican state Senate backed a plan to accept federal dollars to expand the program. The GOP-led state House of Representatives refused to go along. Now, 764,000 low-income adults in Florida will remain without insurance because of the coverage gap, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. And they’re beginning to understand the tragic consequences of that public battle. At Miami’s Borinquen Medical Centers for low-income and uninsured patients, Jason Connor sees hopes crushed as people who thought Obamacare could help them at long last learn otherwise. “We’ve had people break down in tears at our desk,” said Connor, who is under contract with the community health centers to do States could opt out of one of Obamacare’s crucial provisions: The expansion of Medicaid coverage to anyone making less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $15,300 a year for a single person. Affordable Care Act outreach and enrollment activities through his company, Choice Returns. Seventy-eight percent of the 50,000 patients that Borinquen Medical Centers treat every year are uninsured, Connor said. About 20 percent of those who visit their facilities looking to apply for benefits fall into the coverage gap, he added. “Folks are frustrated and they’re angry, and they’ll curse at you even though you have nothing to do with it,” he said. GOP REVOLTS When the Supreme Court ruled that states could opt out of the Medicaid expansion, Florida, Texas and nearly the entire South turned away billions in federal dollars offered for broadening the