Families USA and other major national health care groups are asking a federal judge in Florida to dismiss a lawsuit that would block an expansion of Medicaid that is scheduled under the new health reform law. A key step in that process comes this week as the groups ask the judge for permission to file what is termed an amicus brief in support of the Affordable Care Act on behalf of Medicaid recipients.

The scheduled Medicaid expansion will provide health coverage to an additional 16 million low-income adults for whom quality coverage is unaffordable and who were ineligible for Medicaid in the past.

"The lawsuit to block the Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act is not only purely political, but it is also astoundingly insensitive to the needs of families without health coverage," Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, said of the lawsuit by an assortment of states' attorneys general.

"For millions of uninsured people who cannot afford health coverage, the Medicaid eligibility standards have been miserly. The Affordable Care Act creates a new eligibility standard that will cover people who are unquestionably needy, and it would be cruel to lock these people out of the health coverage they need."

Nineteen groups joined in the filing of the motion to dismiss the states' suit. In addition to Families USA, these include the American Academy of Pediatrics, AARP, American Public Health Association, Children's Dental Health Project, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, National Association of Community Health Centers, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, National Disability Rights Network, National Health Law Program, National Partnership for Women and Families, SEIU Florida, and Voices for America's Children.

Source:
Families USA