“Obamacare” elicits a variety of responses from Athens County residents.
They can’t determine whether the Affordable Care Act will be for the best or the worst.
But political views aside, there is one potential component of the act many can throw their support behind: Medicaid expansion.
“If the Medicaid expansion would go through, that would help a tremendous number of people in Athens County because a lot of people can’t get help now,” said Nick Claussen, spokesman for the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services.
By 2015, the Health Policy Institute of Ohio projects that 2,250 previously uninsured county residents 19 to 64 years old would get insurance through Medicaid expansion by 2015, should the Ohio State Legislature approve it as it was originally written in Gov. John Kasich’s budget proposal.
The state legislature removed it from the budget, but Republican leadership in both chambers has said it would be brought up separately.
Successful health care boils down to getting as many people insured as possible, Claussen said.
“I talk to people all the time who don’t have insurance and facing this problem or that problem and they ask me how to get to the doctor,” he said. “I don’t have any answers for them. I don’t know what they do.”
“They’re choosing between their medicine and paying rent.”
Without Medicaid expansion, though, the act is essentially an unfunded mandate resting on the shoulders of the poor, said Lisa Roberts, director of Friends and Neighbors Community Choice Food Pantry near Coolville.
Many of the pantry’s patrons can’t afford health insurance without Medicaid — even if the government claims they can, Roberts said.
“It’s not that they don’t want insurance, but it’s just if it’s going to cost more money out of their weekly budget, it’s not going to help,” Roberts said.
She said she’s already heard rumblings of families worried about impending fines should they fail to get coverage.
“I don’t have the answers and I don’t know what the answer is,” Roberts said. “I just know that being forced into buying things we cannot afford is not going to help this situation.”
But Claussen maintains that the government will pick up the slack for individuals needing help.
“Right now if you are Joe Smith on the street trying to get health insurance, chances are you won’t get it,” he said. “Hopefully these subsidies will make it more affordable.”
If it’s paired with Medicaid expansion, Missy Craddock, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said the new law would help many of Ohio’s poor.
She added that it’s one of Kasich’s top priorities.
“We feel very strongly that this will help a lot of people get back on their feet,” Craddock said. “We think it’s a necessary thing to have health coverage.”
sh335311@ohiou.edu
@SamuelHHoward
