Source: https://healthlaw.org/resource/10-reasons-medicaid-expansion-is-good-for-women/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 16:46:27+00:00

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 This brief outlines 10 ways Medicaid expansion will help women, including more access to coverage, more comprehensive benefits and better cost sharing protections.
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 genderspecific health needs, chronic disease burden, and longer average life spans, making the Medicaid Expansion particularly important for women.
2. The Medicaid Expansion is important for women without children. Medicaid currently covers women only if they meet both categorical (e.g. parent, pregnancy) and income criteria. Under the Expansion, low-income individuals will qualify for coverage based solely on their income.3 For the first time, many women with incomes below roughly 133% FPL who are not currently pregnant or parenting will be eligible. This access to coverage will allow childless adult women to obtain comprehensive health care, including pre-conception care, which leads to healthier pregnancies and birth outcomes for those who later become pregnant.
8. The Medicaid Expansion will help reduce gender-based health disparities. Nearly 40%of women have a chronic condition that requires ongoing medical attention, compared to 30% of men.14 Women experience higher rates of arthritis, asthma, and obesity, and are affected by anxiety and depression at twice the rate for men.15 The Expansion will help reduce these disparities by allowing low-income uninsured women to access critical preventive and mental health services, early diagnosis tools, and treatment for chronic health conditions.
9. Women in the Medicaid Expansion will have increased access to transportation. Federal law requires states to cover transportation to and from medical providers for individuals in Medicaid, including those enrolled through the Expansion.16 In areas with limited public transportation or where specialists are scarce, women often forgo health care because they lack transportation.17 Lack of geographical access is of particular concern in areas where there are limited reproductive health providers.
10. Women in the Medicaid Expansion will benefit from important ?due process? protections. Women will benefit from heightened protections that apply when Medicaid Expansion benefits are denied, reduced or terminated. For example, when an individual?s Medicaid benefits are going to be terminated, the individual must receive a prior written notice explaining the basis for the decision and the opportunity for an impartial review before the decision goes into effect.18 This may be particularly important for women, for example those whose work income fluctuates and whose chronic conditions create ongoing health care needs.
 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).
 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.
 Medicaid beneficiaries must also meet citizenship and residency requirements.
 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.
 Kaiser Family Found., Women and Health Care: A National Profile 40 (July 2005), http://www.kff.org/womenshealth/upload/women-and-healthcare-a-national-profile-key-findings-from-the-kaiser-women-s-health-survey.pdf.
 Guttmacher Inst., State Policies in Brief: Medicaid Family Planning Eligibility (Aug. 2012), http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_SMFPE.pdf.
 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.
 42 U.S.C. §§ 1396d(a)(4), 1396u-7(b)(7) (applying family planning requirement to Medicaid benchmark coverage).
 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).
 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).
 42 U.S.C. §§ 1396o(a)-(c); 13960-1. See also CMS, Dear State Medicaid Director (June 16, 2006).
 Sheila D. Rustgi, et al., The Commonwealth Fund, Women at Risk: Why Many Women are Forgoing Needed Health Care 3-4 (2009).
 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(23)(B); 42 C.F.R. § 431.51(a)(3).
 Kaiser Family Found., supra note 5, at 8.
 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).
 Kaiser Family Found., supra note 5, at 24.

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