Medicaid Drops Thousands (Hawaii)

[marmar]

Recently proposed Medicaid qualification standards would leave around 4,500 without health insurance around Hawaii. The state Department of Human Services (DHS) proposal decreases the number of residents qualified to use Medicaid, while increasing spending on the benefits of those who remain. Molokai health care providers are concerned about how the changes will affect residents.

DHS announced last week they are decreasing the eligibility based on the federal poverty level (FPL), to help curb spending woes. Currently, applicants that have an income within 200 percent of FPL are qualified – for example, a family of four would be Medicaid-covered if they have a maximum yearly income of $51,420, according to the Foundation for Health Coverage Education.

The new Medicaid proposals, tentatively set to begin Jan. 2, 2012, will affect Quest-Ace and Quest-Net users – specific packages under Hawaii’s Medicaid system. The proposals will reduce the eligibility to 133 percent – meaning a family of four would need to survive on $34,194 or less each year to quality. Families making in the $40,000 range will no longer qualify for Medicaid. Those in the proposed gap will be automatically dis-enrolled when the changes take place.

“We’re worried about our patients,” said Desiree Puhi, executive director of the Molokai Community Health Center (MCHC). “What’s going to happen to these gaps, and how do we educate the community?” ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://themolokaidispatch.com/medicaid-drops-thousands

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[dkf]

2. Our Medicaid has skyrocketed because of the compact with the nations of Micronesia

They come here because they are eligible for all our services, most notably healthcare as many are sick from the nuclear effects done years ago. Because of the costs we tried to limit their benefits so we could afford to pay for our citizens but a federal judge said we couldn't and while he said this should be paid for by the Federal Government he gave us no options on how to pay for it. Micronesians make up 1% of our population but use 20% of our public services dollars in 2008. That has only grown as they invite more family to join them.

We used to be pretty generous with our benefits, one of the few who helped based on income whereas most need to qualify based on having kids. But we can't afford it anymore.

http://www.ihshawaii.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/11.19.10-COFA.pdf

[abelenkpe]

3. Thought they had mandated health insurance? nt