A Gap in Health Coverage

"The Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of health care reform inadvertently opened a hole in health insurance coverage that could harm some of the nation’s poorest citizens. The problem arises from a mismatch between how the law was framed and how the court’s ruling will affect Medicaid, the joint state-federal health program for the poor.

Now that the expansion is no longer mandatory …parents with incomes below the poverty line but above Medicaid eligibility (typically well below the poverty line) … could land in the gap, ineligible for both Medicaid and for tax credits to buy private insurance.”