Many have never heard of it, reports TNR's Alec MacGillis in Kaiser Health News. But one uninsured patient offered instant economic analysis that the CBO would be well advised to take note of:
..it it was hard to find visitors to the clinic who would not benefit directly from the law. Barbara Hickey, 54, is a diabetic who lost her insurance five years ago when her husband was injured at his job making fiberglass pipes. She gets discounted diabetic medication from a charity, but came to the clinic to ask a doctor about blood in her urine.States like Tennessee have kicked a lot of people off Medicaid in recent years -- in Tennessee, you may now be ineligible if you earn as little as $10,000. Conversely, the federal disability rolls have swelled since the financial meltdown and have been rising steadily since the 1990s. Investor's Business Daily reported on April 20 of this year:
Under the law, she would qualify for Medicaid. Her eyebrows shot up as the law was described to her. "If they put that law into effect, a lot of people won't need disability," she said. "A lot of people go onto disability because they can't afford health insurance."
