Duh....
Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid coverage to people living just above the poverty line may be responsible for more disabled people getting jobs, according to a recent study.
Before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) – also known as Obamacare - was passed in 2010, people with disabilities and low income jobs were often unable to afford their expensive medical care. So many chose unemployment in order to be poor enough to qualify for Medicaid coverage, researchers report in the American Journal of Public Health.
“Policy makers in states that have not expanded Medicaid often suggest that making Medicaid available to more people will increase their dependence on public insurance and discourage them from working to obtain insurance through an employer,” said lead author Jean Hall, a health and disability policy researcher at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City and the University of Kansas, Lawrence.
“Our results show just the opposite for people with disabilities, who are much more likely to work in states that expanded Medicaid,” Hall told Reuters Health by email.
In 2014, states were given the option to expand Medicaid’s coverage under the ACA, allowing people earning up 138 percent of the poverty rate to receive Medicaid coverage.