Repeal Of Medicaid Expansion Threatens Rural Hospital

When Arkansas expanded Medicaid in 2014, Mike Haynes signed up for health insurance for the first time in his adult life. "Before that, I really couldn't afford it," he said. "One income in the state of Arkansas is very tough when you're raising two children. I did it, but I couldn't afford fringe benefits, so to speak. I had to feed my kids and put clothes on them." Haynes, 63, is a real estate agent in Mountain Home. His children are grown now, but things remain tight. "We're eating bologna, not steak," he said. His wife has multiple sclerosis and can no longer work (she qualifies for the traditional Medicaid program through her disability benefits), and Haynes' income fluctuates dramatically with the housing market. In 2014, "paychecks were few and far between," he said, and he signed up for coverage under the state's Medicaid expansion, which offers coverage to Arkansans who make less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level (that's $16,400 for an individual or $33,600 for a family of four). A year later, his wife encouraged him to go in for a routine physical, and he ended up being diagnosed with prostate cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma. "It was an eye-opener, extremely scary," Haynes said. "All of a sudden your whole world changes." The doctor told him that if he hadn't come in, he had two years left to live. Now, he's in remission after a dozen sessions of chemotherapy. "I can't stress enough how much it meant to me to have coverage," Haynes said. "I knew I wasn't g...
Source: Arkansas Business - Health Care - Category: American Health Source Type: news