Detrimental Effect on Low-Income African-Americans from Refusing to Accept the Medicaid Expansion Under the ACA

From the Jim Crow laws to the Civil Rights Act, American history has proven that where you live affects your well-being.  In 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law a historical Act that changed the dynamics of healthcare in America. This paper focuses on the discriminatory impact of decisions by states, especially those in the South, to refuse to accept the Medicaid expansion under the  ACA.  This paper argues that these states’ decision, specifically for purposes herein, the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee, to refuse Medicaid expansion pursuant to the ACA is a form of de facto discrimination. 

            First, the paper provides a brief background on Medicaid and discusses the Supreme Court’s decision in the case ofNational Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, which ruled on the constitutionality of the Medicaid expansion under the ACA (The Court held that it was unconstitutional to mandate states to expand Medicaid).  Next, the paper analyzes statistical data from each of the four states to show how low-income African-Americans are disproportionately affected by these states’ refusal to accept the Medicaid expansion.  Then the paper draws comparisons between racial discrimination against African-Americans in Medicaid treatment and racial discrimination against African-Americans in other civil rights issues and calls for a future civil rights movement in health care for low-income African-Americans.  Lastly, the paper envisions what the lack of Medicaid expansion means for low-income African-Americans in the future and the detrimental affect it will have on African-American communities.