Article
Benefits Unclear as States Rush into Medicaid Managed Care
Over the past few decades, 38 states and the District of Columbia have switched their Medicaid plans to some form of managed care for at least part of their government programs.
Nurie Keqi, of Queens, N.Y., is one of the lucky ones benefiting from Medicaid expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. A year ago, her Medicaid plan dropped her and her husband because of a small increase in their household income. The 63-year-old Albanian native, a U.S. citizen since 2007, lost coverage for the pills that kept her high blood pressure in check and lessened her chronic back pain from years of lifting heavy parcels for a small package carrier. Her husband could no longer afford his asthma medications.
“It was difficult. I had no job at that point and drugs are so expensive, and we weren't sure what we were going to do,” Keqi said.
It wasn't until New York expanded Medicaid for people earning above the poverty line that she was enrolled in Health Plus, an Amerigroup Medicaid managed-care plan. Now, the couple are once again filling their prescriptions. “When Obamacare came around, we thanked God,” she said.
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Source: Modern Healthcare
