Dr. Brian Smedley joins Frank Knapp on WOIC's U Need 2 Know to discuss the results of the Joint Center's recent poll, The Deep South and Medicaid Expansion.

Even though governors and lawmakers in five Deep South states oppose a plan to cover more people through Medicaid under the health care overhaul, 62 percent of the people in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina support expanding the program, according to a new poll.

The level of support for expanding Medicaid – the state and federal health insurance program for the poor and disabled – ranged from a low of 59 percent in Mississippi to a high of 65 percent in South Carolina, according to the poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a leading research and public policy think tank that focuses on African-Americans and other people of color.

Brian Smedley, director of the center’s health policy institute, said the findings show that lawmakers who are blocking Medicaid expansion in the five states are “out of step with their constituents.”

“A strong majority of respondents in our poll understand that not only will broader Medicaid coverage save lives and end unnecessary suffering, it will also stimulate job growth and the economy in these states,” Smedley said.

The health care law extends coverage to people who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level – about $16,000 a year for an individual in 2013, or roughly $32,500 for a family of four. The federal government has pledged to pay all medical costs for the newly eligible enrollees in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and no less than 90 percent of their costs thereafter.

But the five states in the poll, all led by Republican governors, have decided not to participate. Ironically, Mississippi and Louisiana rank dead last among all states in the overall health of their residents, according to America’s Health Ranking, an annual report by the United Health Foundation, a nonprofit arm of the insurer UnitedHealth Group. The other three states in the poll – South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia – rank 46th, 45th and 36th, respectively.

Read more at The Miami Herald or the Kansas City Star.

Proponents say two new reports bolster the case for Medicaid expansion in Mississippi, including a poll that shows most people in Deep South states support it, even if their governors don’t.

But Republican Gov. Phil Bryant isn’t wavering in his opposition to Medicaid expansion and the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, and questions the poll’s veracity.

A poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, released Tuesday, says a majority of people — 62 percent — across five Southern states including Mississippi support Medicaid expansion as called for in the Affordable Care Act, despite opposition from Southern states’ governors to expansion.

In the poll, support for Medicaid expansion in Mississippi was lower than that in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina, pollsters said, but still at 59 percent.

“I hope the leaders of these states will hear the will of the people,” Ralph B. Everett, president of the Joint Center, said during a teleconference from Washington on Tuesday. The center is a Washington-based public policy organization that deals primarily with minority issues.

Bryant spokesman Mick Bullock said, “Last year, Mississippi spent more than $1.4 billion in state dollars on the existing Medicaid program — more than one quarter of our total state support budget. I’m sure the survey results would have been different had taxpayers been asked if they wanted to foot the bill for a drastic increase to this already enormous cost. Mississippi cannot afford it, and as Gov. Bryant has said many times, any expansion of Medicaid would result in tax increases for Mississippians or cuts to critical spending in areas like education, public safety and economic development.”

The poll showed a large difference in support between races — with African-American support at 85 percent to 53 percent for whites — economic classes and political parties. Only 38 percent of Republicans supported expansion, compared to 87 percent of Democrats.

Read more at the Jackson Clarion Ledger or the Hattiesburg American.

A new poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies finds solid support across the South from a majority of both African Americans and non-Hispanic whites for the expansion of the Medicaid program as called for in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The Deep South and Medicaid Expansion: The View from Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina was conducted in March and April, 2013. The poll found that 62.3 percent of 2,500 respondents living in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina support expanding the Medicaid program to cover more low-income, uninsured adults. There were racial differences on Medicaid expansion but, nonetheless, majorities of both African Americans (85.3 percent) and non-Hispanic whites (53.3 percent) favored it. Self-identified liberals (78.2 percent) and moderates (69.3 percent) solidly favored Medicaid expansion. While a plurality of conservatives opposed expansion (48.9 percent), it should be noted that a substantial 46.9 percent of conservatives supported it. A large majority of Democrats (87.1 percent) and a majority of independents (56.6 percent) supported expansion, while Republican identifiers (37.9 percent) were the subgroup most opposed.

In addition to support for the Medicaid expansion, residents of the polled states showed strong support for the law’s health coverage tax credit subsidies (68.8 percent in favor) and the creation of statewide insurance marketplaces (75 percent in favor).

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“These findings indicate that residents of these Southern states understand the benefits of the ACA’s Medicaid expansion for their communities, and want their elected officials to carefully study the merits of the law before expressing opposition,” said Ralph B. Everett, President and CEO of the Joint Center. “I hope leaders in these states will hear the will of the people when considering this historic opportunity to ensure that more people gain health insurance coverage.”

Read the entire press release by clicking the icon below.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expands Medicaid so that it can provide health insurance to a larger pool of low income uninsured adults, including adults with no children and whose incomes are below about $16,000 a year. The federal government will pay the entire cost for the first three years, and after that states will pay 10 percent and the federal government 90 percent. In National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, the Supreme Court ruled that states may choose whether or not to participate in the expansion.

In the Deep South states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, political opposition to the expansion is strong. The Republican governors of these states—Robert Bentley (AL), Phil Bryant (MS), Nathan Deal (GA), Nikki Haley (SC), and Bobby Jindal (LA)—each opposes the expansion, as do the Republican majorities in the states’ legislatures.

This study examines how the public in these states views the Affordable Care Act generally and the Medicaid expansion specifically.

In 2004, the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce found that "the civil rights movement of the 1960s ended the more visible racial and ethnic barriers, but it did not eliminate entrenched patterns of inequality in healthcare, which remain the unfinished business of the civil rights movement." Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher told Crisis magazine at the time that the health disparities that existed were a matter of life and death and a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering.

Fast-forward a decade and not much has changed.

Nearly 50 percent of African Americans suffer from some type of chronic disease -- including diabetes and certain cancers -- compared to 39 percent of the general population. The life expectancy of African Americans is five years less than that of whites due to conditions such as heart disease and stroke. Blacks have a higher prevalence of high blood pressure or hypertension than any other group. African Americans are twice as likely to have diabetes than whites and more likely to be overweight and obese than their white counterparts.

Even the nation's first black president has taken note of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes as the striking health disparities between African Americans and other racial groups.

"We know that even as spiraling health care costs crush families of all races, African Americans are more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance than just about anyone else," President Obama said in July 2009.

Currently an estimated 20 percent of African Americans are uninsured (pdf), contributing to the growing health disparities that exist in America's communities. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) introduced legislation to create an annual report on health disparities.

"Every person," said Davis, "should have access to high quality comprehensive health care that is affordable to them without regard to their ability to pay."

President Obama signed the historic Affordable Health Care Act in 2010, which extended health care coverage to 7 million African Americans.

"There's a lot in this law for people of color," said Brian Smedley, vice president and director of the health policy institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, in an interview with The Root.

Smedley pointed to many provisions that are already in effect. For example, insurance companies can no longer deny claims based on pre-existing conditions, and young adults can now stay on their parents' health care plan until they reach age 26. That means 230,000 black women and 180,000 black men between the ages of 19 and 25 can continue to have health insurance under their parents' plan. The legislation also raised the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, providing 4 million more African Americans access to health insurance coverage. Seniors will now be able to get annual wellness exams, diabetes screenings and colorectal cancer screenings.

Read more at The Root.

GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney has said only one thing about the Affordable Care Act. It must go and on day one of his administration if elected he will start the ball rolling to repeal it. The Supreme Court may well save him from this braggadocio, vote pandering boast if the four ultra-conservatives justices joined by the court's swing vote, Anthony Kennedy, get their way. They have given every hint that they will scrap the law.

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The majority of black uninsured are far more likely than the one in four whites who are uninsured to experience problems getting treatment at a hospital or clinic. This has devastating health and public policy consequences. According to a study by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, blacks are far more likely than whites to suffer higher rates of catastrophic illness and disease, and are much less likely to obtain basic drugs, tests, preventive screenings and surgeries. They are more likely to recover slower from illness, and they die much younger.

Read more at OpEdNews.

There are recent changes in how you are registered at a hospital. These changes are based on years of research with the goal being improved care for all. It is good to be prepared, so here is a bit of background information. The Institute of Medicine (IOM)'s landmark report "Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care" (2002) identified that access, quality, delivery and outcomes of health care are lower for racial/ethnic minorities and those with limited language proficiency. According to the 2008 National Healthcare Disparities Report (AHRQ), racial/ethnic disparities refer to differences in the quality of health care received by members of different racial/ethnic groups that are not explained by other factors. Specifically, research identified that health care disparities are responsible for certain groups being less likely to receive cancer screening, appropriate cardiac care, transplants, most effective RA medicines, hip and knee replacements, and effective pain management. According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (2009), racial health disparities in infant mortality, chronic disease and many other metrics cost the U.S. health system more than $57 billion a year.

Read more at The Huffington Post.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) represents a significant advancement in the effort to repair the deeply broken U.S. healthcare system and promote equitable opportunities for good health for all. As long as its provisions are fully funded by Congress, the law will improve access to health insurance for more than 32 million Americans, prevent insurance companies from cherry-picking enrollees and denying claims because of pre-existing conditions, and incentivize more health-care providers to work in medically underserved communities. These are among the benefits that the law is already providing, in addition to what is expected as provisions of the ACA come into force over the next two years.

Read more at CNBC, Yahoo News, the Sacramento Bee, and Marketwatch.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act means that many people of color will see expanded access to healthcare, including those in underserved urban communities gaining increased prevention care. In a column for TheGrio.com, Dr. Brian D. Smedley, vice president at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, notes that under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) minorities, who are more likely to live in segregated and impoverished conditions, can expect to get help with services that reduce health risks.

Read more at Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.