HASTINGS — Mary Lanning Healthcare is pleased to join with the Nebraska Hospital Association to support a ballot issue that would expand Medicaid in the state.
Initiative 427, which will appear on the November 6 ballot, would expand Medicaid, the public health insurance program, to cover more than 90,000 Nebraskans. According to information from the NHA, these are folks who currently fall into a gap and are not eligible under traditional Medicaid rules. However, they do not qualify for financial help to buy private insurance on the Health Insurance Marketplace. The expansion would cover single people who earn less than $17,000 per year.
Eric Barber, MLH President and CEO, said many uninsured are not able to pay for the care they receive. For example, MLH in 2017 logged $9,610,690 in bad debt and $5,221,676 in financial assistance to patients and their families.
“Expansion will create access to care for thousands of hardworking Nebraskans, and benefit community hospitals like MLH,” Barber said.
According to the American Hospital Association, more than 25 percent of hospitals around the country had a negative operating margin in 2016. Since 2013, 64 rural hospitals and 49 urban hospitals nationwide have closed. Most of these closures have occurred in states that have not expanded Medicaid. (Thirty-three states and Washington D.C. have already expanded Medicaid.)
According to Insure The Good Life, the initiative will make Nebraska’s economy healthier. Nearly $600 million in new federal funding per year is already set aside for Nebraska. The initiative will bring those funds to Nebraska, providing health coverage, creating 11,000 jobs, helping rural hospitals and community clinics stay open, and generating $1.1 billion in new economic activity in our state each year.