S.F. Officials Consider Obamacare Costs for Most Vulnerable

They’ll soon vote on whether to allow people eligible for Obamacare to stay on the county’s nearly free plan.

A 2009 visitor to the Castro-Mission Health Center shows a Healthy San Francisco card. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

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San Francisco County is struggling to provide health care to low-income residents who qualify for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Before the rollout of President Barack Obama’s health care reforms, low-income residents qualified for Healthy San Francisco, a nearly free program that has served about 60,000 patients each year since it started in 2007.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

Before the rollout of the Affordable Care Act last year, many of the clinic’s patients had no medical insurance and their visits were partly covered by the county’s program. With more than 70% of its patients lacking traditional health insurance, [a downtown clinic] almost went broke in 2011 because it wasn’t generating enough revenue, [the clinic’s director Elizabeth] Sekera said.

But Obamacare’s massive health insurance expansion has been a boon to this and other community clinics across the state, with insurance plans paying for treatments that used to be provided free of charge or at very low cost to patients. Now 70% of the clinic’s patients have insurance.

But it hasn’t felt like a financial blessing for all her patients. Many tell Sekera they can’t afford the additional costs that have come with Obamacare coverage while managing the high cost of living in San Francisco.

According to the newspaper’s report, many people enrolled in Healthy San Francisco are undocumented, and as such are ineligible for Obamacare plans. Others simply can’t afford some of the high premiums and copays associated with many Obamacare plans. San Francisco County has already allowed 1,800 people eligible for Obamacare to keep Healthy San Francisco plans, and officials are considering other options to help patients get more affordable rates on these plans. The S.F. Board of Supervisors will likely decide later this summer whether or not low-income residents eligible for Obamacare can stay on Healthy San Francisco.

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Jenn Stanley is a freelance journalist, essayist and independent producer living in Chicago. She has an M.S. from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

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Tags: san franciscohealthcarehealth

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