Stuck in the medical insurance gap
On this Thanksgiving Day, 90,000 in Idaho are grateful for having health insurance for the first time in their lives. However, Your Health Idaho says 78,000 people still do not qualify.
The state has chosen not to expand Medicaid like 30 other states have done. Thousands of people fall through the cracks in the Gem State and can’t afford insurance.
Several years ago, Suzanne Judd and her husband decided to leave their home and their job in Minnesota to be closer to their children and grandchildren in Idaho. Suzanne started a seamstress business in Pocatello and her husband works 20 hours a week as a consultant engineer for his former employer. He doesn’t get insurance as a part-time employee. Though they put in long hours in the new business, they haven’t made any profit yet. They’re part of the working poor in Idaho.
“We applied for Obamacare and we were told we didn’t make enough money for Obamacare. That we were too poor. And we’re too young for Medicare,” Suzanne Judd said.
They couldn’t get Medicaid because they fall in the category that would be covered by “expanded” Medicaid. Idaho doesn’t have that because lawmakers won’t approve it.
“There was nothing we could do. We had no way of affording insurance. Within 30 days of applying, I was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. Turned out to be a kidney stone,” Judd said.
“That’s typical,” said Stephen Weeg, director of the Health Insurance Exchange in Idaho. “It will always be a matter of when you need insurance, never if you need insurance. Her story is not unique. I hear story after story of someone who falls in the gap,” he added.
Weeg says if Idaho would expand Medicaid, people like Judd and her husband would have access to affordable insurance, instead of facing huge medical bills.
“If she lived in Washington state, she’d have it. If she lived in Oregon she’d have it. Medicaid expansion in Montana is being implemented this year,” Weeg said.
“We owe thousands and thousands of dollars in medical bills which we’re trying to do with payment plans here and there,” Judd said.
“Fifty percent of bankruptcies are medical bankruptcies,” said Weeg. “Time and again we hear ‘I can’t afford to go to the doctor so I’ll delay care.'” Weeg says they don’t get the care they need early on and the condition worsens. Then people end up in the emergency room.
Weeg says the Judds’ insurance woes and those of 78,000 other Idahoans in the gap would be solved if Idaho’s lawmakers would agree to expand Medicaid like 30 other states have done.
You might think the Judds would encourage their legislators to vote to expand medicaid in Idaho. Surprisingly, they do not. To find out why read the second part her story here.
