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by chadbaud 2834 days ago
I'm pro-universal health care for the US. Hell, I pay over $28,800 in health care premiums a year for my family. Not real happy with the status-quo.

What I'm saying is people are not able to afford healthcare and defaulting to Medicaid at a high rate. I think this is an interesting measurement of people who are falling outside of the planned economy. In the US, you "should" be able to afford heathcare, that's what is planned for. But, now we have almost 20% of citizens relying on Medicaid.
2 comments
darpa_escapee 2834 days ago
The Medicaid enrollment numbers are a bigger reflection of how little people are being compensated: in states that adopted Medicaid expansion under the ACA, only those making a certain percentage of the federal poverty level are eligible for the program.

In states that adopted Medicaid expansion, that usually means 100% to roughly 138% of the FPL. The FPL for a single individual in the 48 contiguous states + DC is $12,140.

Workers whose income is above the FPL cannot default to Medicaid, even if they cannot afford to buy insurance.

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dragonwriter 2834 days ago
> In the US, you "should" be able to afford heathcare, that's what is planned for.

No, it's not. Medicaid (both the original design and the ACA expansion) is exactly a recognition that everyone being able to afford healthcare is simply unrealistic.

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