Jul 12 7:00 PM

The Coverage Gap

Josh Rushing for Al Jazeera America

Fault Lines examines why, despite the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act, 5 million mostly working poor Americans have been left without any health care coverage.

After rancorous debate, a Supreme Court case, and enrollment glitches, President Obama's signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, has finally gone into effect. 

But the president's plan of offering affordable health care to most Americans has an unintended gap in it. While the Supreme Court upheld the law as constitutional, it allowed states to decide whether to expand their Medicaid programs to more of their poorest residents. Now more than 5 million Americans—mostly indigent and working poor—have been left without access to health care coverage because nearly half the states have opted out of Medicaid expansion.

Fault Lines travels to Florida, Texas and North Carolina to examine the U.S.'s new health care dichotomy—how some of the country's poorest communities are being left behind while elsewhere millions of others in the same demographic have access to life-saving care.  


CREDITS:
Executive Producer: Mathieu Skene, Senior Producers: Carrie Lozano @carrielozano and Reem Akkad @reemakkad, Correspondent: Josh Rushing @joshrushing, Directors of Photography: Victor Suarez @tadashi_lives and Singeli Agnew @singeli, Producer: Lauren Rosenfeld @lollymr, Additional Camera: Joel Van Haren @joelvanharen, Martin Asturias @martinasturias, Editors: Keith Wilson @keithtwitted, Jennifer Beman @jbwpost and Warwick Meade @warwickmeade, Digital Producer: Nikhil Swaminathan @sw4mi, Associate Digital Producer: Danielle Powell @DanielleJenene Production Manager: Dana Merwin, Production Assistance: Abdulai Bah @africandobah, Gavin McIntyre @gavin_mci, Shannon Najmabadi @SNajmabadi, Andra Cernavskis @AndraCernavskis, Mark Kurlyandchik @mkurlyandchik, Sara Lafleur-Vetter @lafleurius, Lynne Shallcross @lshallcross

More from this episode

Kate Swift-Scanlan, a nurse practitioner in Raleigh, North Carolina, speaks at a rally for Medicaid expansion spearheaded by the Moral Monday protest movement. (Click the image to see more photos from the episode.)
Lauren Rosenfeld for Al Jazeera America

More on Medicaid Expansion

The continued importance of Medicaid expansion

How states can help bridge the health care gap

Topics:
Health Care
Medicare & Medicaid
Health

Expanding Medicaid without ‘Obamacare’

Red and purple states experiment with ‘private option’ in critical midterm election year

Topics:
U.S.
Politics
Obamacare

Medicaid boosted by 3 million, bringing ‘Obamacare’ sign-ups to 10 million

The numbers may boost Democrats’ assertion that ‘Obamacare’ is working

Topics:
Obamacare
Medicare & Medicaid
U.S.

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