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States struggle with Obamacare and Medicaid as enrollment deadlines are approaching. The deadline for registering to get health insurance offered by the Affordable Care Act, starting 2015 is this Monday. However it is still possible to enlist until Feb. 15 for 2015, but in most cases registering after that date will no longer be possible. Exceptions can be made for certain life events or those who meet the requirement of Medicaid or CHIP. Those who do not possess any type of health insurance may benefit fromsome special enlisting time frame until Dec. 31, 2014.
The first year for Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act was quite challenging. The federal website had abundant problems and some states had their own problems adapting to the new system
It is by now no secret that Medicaid and Obamacare encountered a lot of difficulties to get on board with many physicians and other private health-care frameworks. However it is not entirely clear why it was so. Some say it is because Medicaid has small subscriptions. Others say it is because states failed to implement the program properly.
About 70 million Americans were insured by Medicaid at the end of last year. Also Obamacare is expected to cover another 10 million individuals in five years’ time. It is obviously paramount to secure these people with the medical care they subscribed for. But it looks like one in ten people cannot find a doctor, as per a study. Additionally, postponed medical care has been recorded for those with Medicaid as compared to those holding a private insurance.
For instance in Utah about 60,000 of 2,855,287 individuals still lack health insurance, be it Medicaid or Obamacare. The good news is that healthinsurance.org estimates that insurance subscriptions will go up by 5.7 percent for individual plans and 3.5 percent for small groups in Utah.
Also the Wyoming Legislature plans on expanding the Medicaid enrollment period, but officials have not yet decided on what terms. The State assembly could vote Monday to acclaim a plan that would health care to 17,600 low-income citizens.
But it seems that this expansion does not go hand in hand with the intentions of Gov. Matt Mead and the Wyoming Department of Health.
So the Wyoming legislators will debate and cast a ballot on two bills regarding Medicaid. The first, backed by the governor and called Wyoming’s Strategy for Health, Access, Responsibility and Employment (SHARE). This act proposes that new subscribers complete some health checkups and a co-payment for a list of medical services.
The other act is sculpted after Medicaid programs in Indiana and Michigan and would also demand a co-payment from Medicaid beneficiaries but in a different way. The enrollees would pay a percentage of their wages into a personal special bank account that would enable them to take advantage of expended medical services without any other cost-sharing requirements.
