To the editor:
As our legislators return to Augusta, discussions about expanding affordable health care coverage once again take center stage. AARP remains deeply committed to securing coverage under Medicaid for the thousands of Mainers who otherwise cannot afford it. This isn’t about welfare. It’s about ensuring access to health care for hardworking Mainers who cannot find coverage or for whom coverage is unaffordable. Accepting the federal dollars already set aside for Maine under Medicaid expansion will dramatically reduce the percentage of Mainers who are uninsured and underinsured. There are tens of thousands of people who badly need care, but who don’t get medical treatment because they lack coverage. Thousands of them are aged 50-64, an often forgotten subset of the population.
Having access to affordable health care coverage is especially important for these older adults who are not yet eligible for Medicare. While unexpectedly losing one’s job can be financially devastating for anyone, for workers over the age of 50 there are elements that exacerbate this situation. The unemployment rate nationwide for older workers remains high. As of January 2013, more than 4 in 10 (43.8 percent) older job-seekers were long-term unemployed. AARP studies show that once unemployed, older workers are, on average, out of work longer than their younger counterparts. Adding insult to injury, the failure to extend unemployment insurance, means many out-of-work Mainers have lost their benefits, making it even more difficult to make ends meet.
Before the passage of the ACA, a loss of employer coverage spelled disaster for many 50-64 year-olds, who on average have at least one chronic condition. Because most health insurance carriers underwrote policies based on factors including health status and age, people in this age group often had trouble finding a plan that met their needs, was affordable, and that was obtainable despite a pre-existing condition. According to a 2010 report issued by The Commonwealth Fund, nearly 70 percent of older adults did not purchase a health insurance plan at all.
Leaving people uninsured without access to primary and preventive care jeopardizes even the most careful preparation for health and financial security in later life. Too many Mainers’ nest eggs have eroded because their health care costs surpassed their savings. Now, even if employed, they may find it impossible to make up the dollars they’ve lost as they enter their retirement years.
The expanded health coverage will provide access to both primary and preventive care such as medical screenings and treatment for chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease. Once insured, they are less likely to delay the care they need.
Healthier workers with coverage to prevent and treat illnesses and chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes are more likely to stay employed. Accepting funds to cover more people will help many more hard-working, low-income individuals get the right care at the right time in the right place.
It will also mean less cost-shifting to businesses and to individuals who buy health insurance. In the United States, the average insured family pays an extra $1,000 a year toward the cost of caring for the uninsured. It will also translate to savings for Medicare, which will have to pick up the resulting costs for people who don’t get the care they need before they turn 65.
The bottom line is that expanding affordable coverage is an excellent deal for Maine. The federal government will pay 100 percent of the cost of covering “newly eligible” individuals for three years, through Dec. 31, 2016. After that, the federal contribution will be adjusted gradually until it reaches the permanent rate of 90 percent in 2020, far greater than the 64-cent rate it currently pays for Medicaid members.
For all these reasons, accepting the Medicaid dollars should be an open and shut case, except — and it’s a big except — the ACA has been turned into an enormous political football. This should be about people, not politics.
AARP is proud to stand with the Cover Maine Now coalition in seeking to expand Medicaid for the people of Maine. We ask Maine residents to urge their legislators to do the right thing for Maine’s economy but more importantly for Maine people in 2014: Accept the federal dollars already set aside for our state and expand health care coverage for all hardworking Mainers.
Rich Livingston
AARP Maine
volunteer president
Auburn
