Health Care Week 3

Help us make this the year that diabetics in WV get relief
from the cruel and unfair cost of their insulin and supplies!

 By Kim Jones, Coordinator Health Care for All-WV

HB 2430 is a bill to lower the cost of insulin and diabetic supplies for people with health insurance. It would drop the price of insulin from $100 a month to $35 dollars a month. It would also reduce the cost of supplies and devices diabetics use. Diabetics who use insulin pumps could get one every two years for $250. The proper supplies and insulin can literally extend the lives of diabetics by a decade or two. And West Virginia has the highest rate of deaths due to diabetes in the country. 

This bill had huge bipartisan support last year, but didn’t make it across the finish line due to an amendment that was added the last day of Session. We need this bill to pass this year! Here’s what you can do to make it happen:

1. Check out the details of the bill and why it is especially important to West Virginians in this HB 2430 fact sheet from our friends at West Virginians for Affordable Health Care. 
2. Take action:  let your lawmakers know that this bill is important to you and your loved ones.
3. Contact House Health Committee Chair Delegate Amy Summers (R) Taylor Co. and ask her to put it on her committee’s agenda! The sooner we get it on the agenda the more time we will have to get it passed. If your delegate is on the Health Committee, contact them as well to show your support!

Other Health Care Updates & Actions:

Bill to expand Medicaid Dental Coverage to adults!

Another bill that could strengthen the health of West Virginians is SB 269, a bill that proposes to raise the Medicaid Dental Benefit from $1,000 to $2,000 a year for adult recipients. We believe dental and vision health are inseparable from health in general and are pleased to see this step being taken to help the many people in WV who desperately need dental services. The bill passed the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee unanimously and is now in the Senate Finance Committee.

Please click on this link and let your lawmakers know that
you support better dental health for the folks of this state!

For those of you who are looking for a dentist in your area that takes the adult Medicaid dental benefit, Health Care for All created this interactive map to help. 

What is the Medicaid Cliff? Why is it important to the health and employability of West Virginians?

The Medicaid Cliff Effect is when people make a little more money through getting a raise, more hours, a second job to help their families thrive, but in the process, that little increase can actually leave families with less money for rent, food, bills because they lose their affordable insurance coverage. This makes families have to do without coverage or pay much more for private insurance. Many families forgo income increases because, with a small gain in income, they have far more to lose by losing their vital health coverage. 

The Affordable Medicaid Buy-In will lower the number of uninsured working West Virginians by 7,000-9,000. And  can enable our state’s workers and families to move up the economic ladder and keep their affordable health coverage at zero new costs to the state. 

The Affordable Medicaid Buy-in would:

• Remove a significant barrier to upward income mobility
• Lower health care costs for lower income workers
• Reduce “churn” and the state’s uninsured rate
• Be paid for with federal dollars

We will keep you posted on this and other important bills!

WV Citizen Action Group, West Virginians for Affordable Health Care and the WV Center on Budget and Policy have been working in unison through the Health Care for All WV coalition since 2019 on policies like these to support WV families in times where healthcare, medications and services are astronomically priced and put an immense financial burden on so many.

We will continue to update you throughout the session and with your help we can get these bills passed and support the people of this state that struggle with getting proper affordable healthcare and medicines!