The Affordable Care Act, established in 2010, originally mandated that states expand Medicaid to adults who earn under 138% of the national poverty level. However, in June 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that requiring states to expand their programs was unconstitutional; rather, states must be able to choose whether to participate.

States’ decisions to participate will deeply impact people with disabilities —a disproportionate number of whom have incomes below the threshold. In Pennsylvania there are still over 100,000 people with disabilities who receive no Medicaid assistance, and there are even more in other states. For these people, Medicaid expansion will be critical to ensuring they have access to the care they need. However, many states have not yet agreed to accept the expansion and provide this needed care.

Read more about this topic on attorney Stephen Gold’s most recent blog post, “The Disability Community and Medicaid Expansion: What’s at Stake?”