Effect of Medicaid expansion uncertain here

While half its residents are on Medicaid, the statewide vote to expand Medicaid services could be a decidedly mixed bag for Wauneta Care and Therapy Center.
    “We really don’t know if it’s going to do anything, hinder or help us,” said Administrator Lisa Kisinger. “We just don’t know.”
    A measure on Nebraska’s Nov. 6 midterm election ballot garnered a 53 percent yes vote. It expands Medicaid coverage to require the state to provide Medicaid to those under the age of 65 and with incomes equal to or below 138 percent of the federal poverty line.
    Both Chase County and Wauneta bucked the statewide trend. Sixty-three percent of Chase County voters voted against it and it lost in Wauneta 136-94, a 59 percent “no” vote.
    According to Forbes magazine, the measure will bring nearly $600 million a year to Nebraska from Washington, D.C., create nearly 11,000 jobs and generate $1.3 billion in economic activity statewide. It will add coverage for 45,000 people and will drop the rate of uninsured Nebraskans from 12.4 percent to 9.6 percent, the magazine said. The vote also was seen as a rebuke to Gov. Pete Ricketts, who had passed on the expansion, the magazine said.
    Kisinger said the effect on nursing homes was not included in studies backing the measure.
    The conundrum for the nursing home is that while expansion may provide more residents, the home loses money on every Medicaid patient.To read the full story, subscribe to the e-edition online or call the Breeze at 308-394-5389 to subscribe to the print edition.

 

Wauneta Breeze

308-394-5389 (Phone)

324 N. Tecumseh

PO Box 337

Wauneta NE 69045

 

Effect of Medicaid expansion uncertain here | Wauneta Breeze

Error

The website encountered an unexpected error. Please try again later.