Medicaid Expansion Talking Points

Via Ezra, I see Families USA has listed 10 reasons why we need health care reform.  The #1 Reason?  "Fully federally funded" Medicaid expansion that will insure millions of low-income households nationwide.

They helpfully extrapolate on each point in the easily digestible document.  Here are your talking points on Medicaid expansion, an issue we've been tackling here at Poverty in America.

The bill will increase Medicaid eligibility to 133% of the federal poverty level (~$24k for a family of 3 in '09).  This expansion alone would cover more than one-third of the currently uninsured, or about 17M people.

We need this expansion because so far we're leaving millions of poor adults without access to health care.  Medicaid now is fairly restrictive in who qualifies among the low-income.  In only 7 states are low-income childless adults currently eligible, and in only DC and 16 states cover parents at 100% of the poverty level.

The remainder of the report is super handy in explaining market regulation, the public option, coverage for kids, cost control, and other reasons why we need health care reform.  Read up and gear up for President Obama's speech next week!