While the coverage VHA provides is considered appropriate by ACA standards, what happens to the thousands of veterans not covered by VHA? The majority were not affected by the ACA. The majority of veterans were covered by Medicaid, VHA, or other private insurance providers. The part of the population that will be most likely affected would be the 7% of veterans who do not have health insurance (Kizer 2012). This 7% cannot afford the cost of private health care coverage and are not eligible to receive benefits through VHA. In the event that the uninsured veteran cannot receive coverage through their employer they can either select a plan from Healthcare.gov or apply for Medicaid. Some veterans who may not have qualified for Medicaid in the past may now be eligible under the …show more content…
If the states elected not to expand they would lose all federal Medicaid funding (Swendiman & Baumrucker 2012). In Supreme Course Case National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, the court found this unconstitutional. After the case, states had the option to choose to expand Medicaid and would not lose federal funding as a repercussion. Over 50% of the uninsured veterans would be eligible to receive coverage through Medicaid with this expansion (Tsai & Rosenheck 2012). This is a large amount of veterans that would now have coverage and would be able to avoid the penalties of not having coverage. If a veteran lives in a state that decided not to expand Medicaid it is ultimately their responsibility to find healthcare coverage from another