Billionaire Koch Brothers Spending Millions To Deny Health Coverage To Low-Income Americans

[D Gary Grady]

17. They make too *little* for Exchange subsidies

The article says, "The 26 GOP-controlled states not participating in the law’s Medicaid expansion are home to a disproportionate share of low-income Americans who aren’t poor enough to qualify for the existing Medicaid program and make too much to be eligible for subsidies in the ACA’s insurance marketplaces."

Almost but not quite. As I understand it, subsidies are available for people households making between 1.3 and 4 times the poverty rate. The ACA intended that those under 1.3 times the poverty level would be eligible for Medicaid because states would be required (as a condition of continued Medicaid funding) to make all such families eligible for Medicaid. But the Supreme Court invalidated that part of the law, saying states could refuse to expand Medicaid, and many did, even though the federal government would pick up 100% if the cost for several years and 90% thereafter, and it reduces the number of doctor and (often state-supported) hospital bills that go unpaid. So low-income working people in those states are seriously getting screwed over for no reason other than extreme ideology.