Midterms: Health Care is a key national issue

-Source-USAToday- Health care has been a top issue in federal races this year as Republicans and Democrats fight over repealing or replacing Obamacare. But the real action this election might come at the state level. No one knows that better than Amy Alana Marmel an Idaho Falls single mom who was shocked when she went to sign up for insurance after the 2010 Affordable Care Act passed and found out she didnt qualify. Thats because Idaho is one of 17 states that havent gone along with the laws expansion of government insurance to include those earning up to about $28000 for a family the size of Marmels. So in November voters in Idaho as well as Nebraska and Utah will decide whether to go around elected officials who have rejected expanding the joint federal-state program that covers the poor and disabled one of every five Americans. Marmel 48 who works as a server and bartender is among 84000 people in those states who could gain insurance. It would be a huge weight off my mind she said. Tens of thousands more people who are already eligible could sign up for care because theyll be told about the program and be helped to enroll. There is just a huge swing in terms of the outcome of this election from really buttressing the existing levels of coverage for adults and securing them to significantly damaging them" said Eliot Fishman senior director of health policy at the advocacy group Families USA. Eight out of 10 Medicaid adults including parents and childless adults the group targeted by the Medicaid expansion live in working families and a majority work themselves according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In Utah advocates are trying to make their Medicaid move bullet-proof by also putting on the ballot a sales tax increase to pay for the states costs. They hope that will prevent Utahs legislature from not implementing the expansion even if voters approve it simply by not funding it. We are bringing that decision directly to the people" said Stacy Stanford a Utah resident who went without health insurance for years and is now helping push for Medicaid expansion through the Utah Health Policy Project. Health care has typically ranked as a top issue for votes but has risen this year in importance to Democratic voters while fallen among voters supporting Republicans according to the Pew Research Center. Nearly nine in 10 Democratic voters say health care is very important to their vote making it their most popular issue. Among Republicans however only six in 10 called health care very important ranking it behind the economy terrorism Supreme Court appointments gun policy taxes immigration and the federal budget deficit.