Healthcare Financial News

A new report from AARP released Sept. 12 looks at why millions of low-income adults cannot get Medicaid. The report, Millions of Low-Income Americans Can’t Get Medicaid: What Can Be Done? from AARP’s Public Policy Institute, outlines key policy options for improving Medicaid coverage for low-income adults. Current federal law prohibits Medicaid from covering adults--no matter how poor--unless they are pregnant, caring for dependent children, severely disabled, or elderly.

“The major misconception is if you’re poor, Medicaid is available, and that’s just not true,” said Susan Reinhard, head of AARP’s Public Policy Institute. “This lack of coverage hits adults 55-64 years old especially hard. We must encourage more discussion of potential solutions to help millions of low-income adults afford basic health care. This report highlights a number of possible fixes.”

Policy options to help low-income adults include expanding the Medicaid program with additional federal assistance, allowing Medicaid to cover all individuals below a certain income level, and allowing flexibility for states to include others in Medicaid. Download the report.

Regardless of their personal political affiliation, corporate benefit professionals expressed concerns with both presidential candidates’ healthcare proposals, according to a survey conducted in July and August by Miller & Chevalier Chartered and the American Benefits Council. The results of the 2008 Corporate Health Care Policy Forecast Survey, measuring the perspectives and attitudes of corporate benefit professionals on the direction of healthcare policy in the coming year, were announced today.

Three-fourths (74 percent) of respondents say that a repeal of the employee tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health coverage (a proposal of Republican presidential candidate John McCain) would have a strong negative impact on their workforce. Respondents clearly rejected the assertion that altering the tax exclusion for employer-provided health coverage would not affect employer sponsorship of plans.

Also, 46 percent of respondents said that requiring employers to “pay or play” (a proposal of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama) would have a strong negative effect on their workforce--more than three times the number of respondents (14 percent) who viewed the idea positively.

Respondents also said that they would like to see more focus on cost (58 percent) and quality (74 percent) issues. Read the survey report.