Quirk in PPACA Leaves Millions on Medicaid Without Pre-paid Preventive Care

This is Samual Adams reprting for Bloomberg:

Colonoscopies, diabetes screenings and other preventative services mandated by the U.S. health law may be offered only to new Medicaid program enrollees next year, leaving existing patients with second-tier care, a study found. [Emphasis added.] ...

The 2010 Affordable Care Act guaranteed preventative screenings to almost all who enroll in the expanded version of Medicaid and states were given the option of whether to offer those services to people already in the program.

While the law provides some money to avoid such disparity, the federal incentives may be insufficient to change the minds of governors and legislators. Some states, including Virginia,Utah, Montana and Vermont, have decided it’s not worth the financial burden....

About 25 million Americans are projected to gain insurance under the health-care law, including 13 million through the state-federal Medicaid program for the poor. The Medicaid expansion called for every state to expand eligibility to people making as much as 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $32,500 for a family of four this year.

The Supreme Court ruled last year that requiring the states to expand their Medicaid programs was unconstitutional....

As of July 1, 21 states have said they won’t expand Medicaid and 6 others are still debating what to do....