IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa’s Medicaid ranks could swell by 25 percent once health care reform changes are implemented.
Current rules require that low-income Iowans also have a qualifying factor, such as a disability or pregnancy, to be eligible for Medicaid.
Reform measures could add 80,000 to 100,000 Iowans – mostly single adults or childless couples – who earn below 133 percent of the federal poverty level and don’t have those qualifiers, said Jennifer Vermeer, Iowa Medicaid Enterprise director.
Vermeer and Julie McMahon of the Iowa Department of Public Health spoke to about 40 people Tuesday, Dec. 14, at the Iowa City Public Library as part of the health department’s efforts to gather comments on the state’s development of a health benefits exchange.
The state-based exchanges are intended to make purchasing health insurance easier by providing individuals and businesses with “one-stop-shopping” where health insurance coverage can be compared and purchased.
Under the Affordable Care Act, states must have an operational exchange by Jan. 1, 2014, or the federal government will operate an exchange for the state.
The exchange will use an Internet-based system to compare insurance plans.
Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act are intertwined because anyone applying for health insurance under the state’s exchange would also see if they qualify for Medicaid, Vermeer said.
Subsidies will be available for other Iowans who cannot afford to purchase health insurance.
Three components to the system have similar names, but different purposes.
An insurance information exchange is a health insurance information clearinghouse. View Full Article »
