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.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 -- The National Council of La Raza issued the following news release:

As the United States transitions to a "majority-minority" population over the next three decades, prominent health and income security groups say the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction and other members of Congress must take into account how changes to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will affect communities of color, a population that is growing and increasingly economically insecure.

Two new reports show the importance of programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to communities of color. Plan for a New Future: The Impact of Social Security Reform on Communities of Color, released by the Commission to Modernize Social Security, argues that changes to the program must consider the impact on workers and families of color who are more vulnerable to economic instability and far less likely to have generational wealth than White families. The importance of Medicaid to the Black and Latino communities, as well as the heavy burden of chronic disease borne by these groups, is documented in a detailed report, Medicaid: A Lifeline for Blacks and Latinos With Serious Health Care Needs, which was recently released by Families USA.

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"Social Security is the only source of income for two of every five African American retiree households age 65 and older," said Commission member Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh, Senior Research Associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "So any proposals to guarantee system solvency should also guarantee the adequacy of benefits going forward."

Read the full story at Insurance News.

Major cuts to Medicaid would have a disproportionately harsh effect on African-Americans and Latinos, according to a new report released recently by a coalition of major health, civil rights and consumer groups.

The report, "Medicaid: A Lifeline for Blacks and Latinos with Serious Health Care Needs," reveals that making cuts to Medicaid fails to reduce costs, instead it shifts the burden to states, families, hospitals and the uninsured. In fact, in some cases, the report notes, cutting assistance for treatment can actually increase costs over the long run.

"As policymakers consider sharp cutbacks in the Medicaid program, this report brings an important potential consequence of their actions to the table – that cutting Medicaid will likely hit hardest at communities of color and, in particular, those who depend on the program to manage and treat their chronic illnesses," said Ralph B. Everett, president and CEO of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

This article was previously available at The Washington Informer.

Cuts to Medicaid would pose a specific and dangerous threat to millions of black and Latino Americans who depend on the program for regular treatment for such medical conditions as cancer, diabetes, chronic lung disease, heart disease, and stroke. Without Medicaid, many of these seriously-ill Americans would no longer be able to fill essential prescriptions, keep up with key screenings, or see a doctor if their condition worsens or reoccurs.

The importance of Medicaid to the black and Latino communities, as well as the heavy burden of chronic disease borne by these groups, is documented in a detailed report, “Medicaid: A Lifeline for Blacks and Latinos with Serious Health Care Needs,” which was released today.

The report was released jointly by the American Diabetes Association, the American Lung Association, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the National Medical Association, the National Urban League Policy Institute, and Families USA.

Read the full story at WCTV.

WASHINGTON, DC—Major cuts to Medicaid would have a disproportionately harsh effect on black and Latino Americans, who are much more likely than others to depend on the program for regular treatment for chronic medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes, chronic lung disease, heart disease, and stroke, according to a report released today by a broad coalition of major health, civil rights and consumer groups.

The report, Medicaid: A Lifeline for Blacks and Latinos with Serious Health Care Needs, is the first ever to reveal details on the proportion of chronically ill minority Americans who benefit from Medicaid, the state and federally funded health insurance program for low income people.  It raises concerns about reductions in Medicaid funding resulting in many seriously-ill blacks and Latinos no longer being able to fill essential prescriptions, keep up with key screenings, or see a doctor if their condition worsens or reoccurs.

Report, commissioned by the Families USA, the Joint Center Health Policy Institute and other allies, describes the likely impact on African Americans and Latinos of cuts to Medicaid, the program on which millions of low-income Americans rely. It contains state-specific data for blacks and Latinos who rely on Medicaid and suffer from chronic medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes, chronic lung disease and heart disease.