Florida is among a number of states that have not expanded their health care programs as the federal government has made changes. Other states include Texas, West Virginia and Alabama. The federal government would take on most of the cost — up to 90 percent in those initial three years of the expansion — but the states have not made the changes anyway.
One thing that makes this refusal to expand so interesting and detrimental is that these are some of the same states that have the highest percentages of low-income people who have reported that they are not able to pay for the health care that they need. These are exactly the type of people that the new laws were put in place to help, but it is estimated that more than five million people are not going to be able to get that care.
This is a huge development as far as long term care planning is concerned, seeing as how it can often be very expensive, despite the fact that people’s very lives may depend on it. If the health care options are not expanded, it could be all but impossible for many people to plan for the future in the way that they need to if they are going to be healthy for years to come.
Those who are looking into their long term care options, including the health and wellness side of things, need to stay abreast of the current changes to the federal and state laws so that they understand what type of healthcare they can afford in states like Florida, where state policies and federal policies can differ.
Source: Think Progress, “Most Of The States Where People Struggle Most to Afford Health Care Aren’t Expanding Medicaid” Tara Culp-Ressler, Mar. 28, 2014
