HUFFINGTON
02.16.14
COURTESY OF MAYTE CANINO
TOO POOR FOR OBAMACARE
or a government-funded community health center. Unpaid medical
bills totaled $57.4 billion in 2008
— and taxpayers picked up about
three-quarters of the tab, according to a study published in the
journal Health Affairs. Expanding
health coverage via Obamacare
was supposed to reduce that burden, but the patchwork Medicaid
expansion limits the law’s reach.
And if Alphonse’s condition
deteriorates into what’s known as
end-stage renal disease, or permanent kidney failure, he automatically would qualify for Medicare
coverage paid for by the federal
government. Although Medicare
mainly is for people over 65 or
those with disabilities, people
who need dialysis or a kidney
transplant are eligible under a
special rule enacted in 1972.
For those too poor for Obamacare in Miami, watching neighbors who make more money receive subsidized health insurance
makes the experience even more
painful, said Mayte Canino, a
field and volunteer coordinator
for Planned Parenthood of South
Florida and the Treasure Coast.
Uninsured people are skeptical of
Obamacare and unaware of many
provisions, and only 49 percent
know that states have the option
to expand Medicaid, according
to a poll conducted by the Kaiser
Family Foundation last month.
“That even affects them more,
when they see that other people
are getting help and they’re not,”
said Canino, who helps people
sign up for insurance. “Many of
them are very unhappy. They
blame the law, some of them, for
it. They just walk away from it,
and they think that’s it.
They’re defeated.”
Jeffrey Young is a health care
reporter at The Huffington Post.
Mayte
Canino, a field
and volunteer
coordinator
for Planned
Parenthood
of South
Florida and
the Treasure
Coast.