Source: https://healthlaw.org/resource/10-reasons-the-medicaid-expansion-benefits-women-living-with-hiv/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 12:52:00+00:00

Document:
The Affordable Care Act?s Medicaid Expansion has the potential to extend health coverage for many women living with HIV who are currently in a ?catch-22??unable to afford health insurance but not sick enough to qualify for Medicaid. NHeLP?s 10 Reasons the Medicaid Expansion Benefits Women Living with HIV makes the case that the expansion is critical not only for these women, but for state health programs nationwide.
1. Millions of women stand to benefit from the Medicaid Expansion. The Expansion will produce a significant reduction in the number of uninsured women aged 16-64 in each of the 50 states.1 In 2010, 55 percent of the 19 million currently uninsured women in the U.S. had incomes low enough to qualify for coverage under the Medicaid Expansion.2 Additionally, women are high utilizers of health care due to their reproductive and gender- specific health needs, chronic disease burden, and longer average life spans, making the Medicaid Expansion particularly important for women.
1 Ruth Robertson et al., Commonwealth Fund, Oceans Apart: The Higher Health Cost Compared to Other Nations, and How Reform Is Helping at Ex. 2 (July 2012).
2 Kaiser Family Found., Impact of Health Reform on Women?s Access to Coverage and Care 1 (Apr. 2012), http://www.kff.org/womenshealth/upload/7987-02.pdf.
3 Medicaid beneficiaries must also meet citizenship and residency requirements.
4 Kaiser Family Found., Income Eligibility Limits for Working Adults at Application as a Percent of the Federal Poverty Level by Scope of Benefit Package (Jan. 2012), http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparereport.jsp?rep=54&cat=4.
5 Kaiser Family Found., Women and Health Care: A National Profile 40 (July 2005), http://www.kff.org/womenshealth/upload/women-and-health- care-a-national-profile-key-findings-from-the-kaiser-women-s-health-survey.pdf.
6 Guttmacher Inst., State Policies in Brief: Medicaid Family Planning Eligibility (Aug. 2012), http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_SMFPE.pdf.
7 Rachel Benson Gold, Guttmacher Inst., Stronger Together: Medicaid, Title X Bring Different Strengths to Family Planning Effort (2007), http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/gpr/10/2/gpr100213.html.
8 42 U.S.C. §§ 1396d(a)(4), 1396u-7(b)(7) (applying family planning requirement to Medicaid benchmark coverage).
9 42 U.S.C. § 1396u-7(b)(5) (Medicaid Benchmark plans must include a minimum of the Essential Health Benefits); see also § 1396u-7(a)(2)(B) (requiring certain vulnerable populations to be provided full Medicaid benefits).
10 For example, default Medicaid rules limit the total cost sharing that low income families can pay and prohibit premiums in most categories of Medicaid (with some exceptions). 42 U.S.C. §§ 1396o(a) and (e).
11 42 U.S.C. §§ 1396o(a)-(c); 13960-1. See also CMS, Dear State Medicaid Director (June 16, 2006).
12 Sheila D. Rustgi, et al., The Commonwealth Fund, Women at Risk: Why Many Women are Forgoing Needed Health Care 3-4 (2009).
13 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(23)(B); 42 C.F.R. § 431.51(a)(3).
14 Kaiser Family Found., supra note 5, at 8.
15 Id. at 8, 12.
16 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(4)(A); 42 C.F.R. § 431.53; 42 C.F.R. § 440.390 (applying the transportation requirements of 42 C.F.R. § 431.53 to Medicaid benchmark and benchmark-equivalent plans).
17 Kaiser Family Found., supra note 5, at 24.
18 See U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1; Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 266 (1970); 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(3).

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