A few quick notes for the upcoming month and Medicaid Expansion.
Missouri residents will be voting on adding Medicaid Expansion as a state plan amendment to the Missouri Constitution on August 4, 2020. The state plan amendment part is critical as that precludes administrative burden maximizing requirements such as work search and frequent redeterminations of eligibility.
The results of another referendum to expand Medicaid will be felt on August 1st. Nebraska voted to expand Medicaid in November 2018. The state government slow-rolled implementation so the first day of coverage won’t be until October 1, 2020. However enrollment can start August 1, 2020.
If you live in Missouri, make sure that you can vote safely. If you live in Nebraska, help organize and mobilize folks to find the coverage that they need.
Punchy
Does Medicaid Expansion disappear if (when?) SCOTUS tosses the ACA? Or can this survive the law’s demise?
Marcopolo
Good morning folks I have already voted to expand Medicaid in MO. And I finished & paid my taxes yesterday. So where do I go to get my pony? Lol.
David Anderson
@Punchy: Who the hell knows….
If Texas/plaintiffs get their wish, yes, all of the ACA including Medicaid expansion disappears.
If California gets their wish, nothing changes.
A split the baby decision of “yes, a $0 mandate is unconstitutional BUT it is completely severable” leads to no changes to Medicaid expansion AND no change to the operations of the exchanges since January 1, 2019.
Cameron
I notice nothing about Florida. Apparently there is no connection here between accessible, affordable health care and COVID-19.
BC in Illinois
I already have voted. Missouri requires that you have an excuse for requesting an absentee ballot, but a global/local pandemic outbreak seems to cover the case. The St Louis County Election Board sent me a form telling me that [emphasis added] :
Since I am both a registered Democrat and a registered Septuagenarian, I qualified for an absentee ballot. This kind of announcement may not be happening state-wide, but if the Democratic counties encourage and make it easy for everyone to vote, and the Republican counties do not . . . well, that seems fair to me.
[ It’s also worth noting that among the endorsers of MO Prop #2, along with Democrats, doctors, nurses, hospitals, and pro-health organizations, you can also find the Missouri Chamber of Commerce. (Among the opponents are Republicans and Americans for the Prosperity of Charles and David Koch.) ]
Marcopolo
@BC in Illinois: Hey BC, seems like a decade since that meet up. I took my mom, an octogenarian, to vote last week. It’s the only time she’s been out of the house other than 2 Dr appts (the two of us are on a fairly strict quarantine regimen so I wait in the car in the parking lot for those trips). Aside from the long line of folks waiting to get in to the Assessor’s office, there were only a handful of other folks in the building so we zoomed in (talk about going to the head of the line), voted, and zoomed out. I’m thinking we were there less than 10 mins.
I’ve urged all of my friends to vote in person absentee as well–you don’t need a Dr’s note to prove you have an underlying condition (and most of my friends are pretty heavy which is a factor), and the Board of Elections really doesn’t have the resources to be going around checking up on folks. My biggest concern, and this has become apparent when I talk to my neighbors when I am out for my daily walks, is that most folks don’t even realize Medicaid expansion is on the primary ballot, and barring a really pressing need to vote in the primary (I don’t think many around here find the County Executive primary very compelling) they were considering just blowing it off.
Anyways, that’s my experience where I live.
Yutsano
@David Anderson: The whole point of the lawsuit is that there is no severability clause in the ACA. I can guarantee you the four conservatives will upend precedent here and say because it’s not there then yes the whole law has to be struck down. But will Roberts go against his original ruling and now say the mandate is unconstitutional eight years after he said it was indeed a constitutional tax? Stay tuned on that.
Mart
@BC in Illinois: Somebody is running really smart expansion ads in MO. Has the look and sound of a right wing cause – billions of Missouri tax dollars are going to DC, where that money is sent to 30 something other states, including NY & CA – with big maps of those states shown filled with MO money bags. Voting on X will keep your money here where we can have good health care stuff like rural hospitals, etc. First watched my radar went up as expected Koch bullshit, but it was lefty after all. And dropping the need for an excuse and a notary to vote absentee for the olds is nice of them during a pandemic.
taumaturgo
In NPR radio they reported that for those states that have expanded Medicaid, about 2/3 of the unemployed due to Covid19 have been able to secure health insurance. Contrast that with Texas -and all other states – that have refused to expand Medicaid resulting in over 50% of those losing their jobs and healthcare coverage are uninsured. This is the time for universal coverage, no if or buts, otherwise the carnage will continue unabated even among the covidiots that tragically refuse to wear maks.
Marcopolo
@Mart: Weird, I have not seen this ad. Maybe I’m not watching enough TV. I’ve seen plenty of McGrath, Trump, and now local StL County Executive ads over the past couple months, however. Btw, why the eff are there Trump ads running in the St Louis market? I mean I guess I am glad his campaign (or affiliated group–don’t remember) is wasting money here but who is the target: already pretty red MO or blue blue blue IL? As with much of Trump world it makes no sense. If he’s lost MO Trump is so far out of it he might as well slink off to Russia now while the going is good.