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Hendry County, With Highest Uninsured Rate in Florida, Sees Little Impact From Obamacare

January 27, 2014 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

U.S. Sugar's Clewiston Factory is one of the biggest sugar producing factories in the country and the primary employer in the area with more than 1,600 workers. (C-Monster)
U.S. Sugar’s Clewiston Factory is one of the biggest sugar producing factories in the country and the primary employer in the area with more than 1,600 workers. (C-Monster)

CLEWISTON, Fla.– – In the city that calls itself “America’s Sweetest Town,” the smell of burning sugar cane pierces the 80 degree January air.

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Steam billows from the 12-story U.S. Sugar Corp. factory that dominates the landscape and the economy in this region, halfway between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Some describe the aroma as sweet, others as sour — a metaphor of sorts for the Affordable Care Act and its impact on this South Florida county that has the state’s highest uninsured rate.

Thirty-five percent of Hendry County’s 33,000 residents under age 65 lack health insurance, according to the latest census figures, much higher than Florida’s 25 percent average, which is the nation’s second highest state rate.

If any place in America needs help getting residents insurance coverage and a leg up on improving their health, this is it.

But nearly a month after the health law’s expansion of coverage began, local health officials say little has changed for most uninsured residents.

[St. Johns County has the lowest rate of uninsured in Florida, at 15.4 percent. Flagler County’s rate is at 23 percent, and ranks 23rd in the state. Florida is second only to Texas in the proportion of people younger than 65 without health insurance. See county rankings here.]

“I kept hearing about Obamacare and how no American would go uninsured, but then I was let down,” says Kelly Cody, 48, a diabetic with an inoperable brain tumor who has gone without health insurance for nine years.

Cody, along with many of Hendry’s uninsured, is ineligible for Medicaid, which in Florida is limited to pregnant women and children, the disabled, some elderly and very poor parents.

But her $8,400 a year income — through a pension from her late husband’s military service — is too small to qualify her for a federal subsidy to buy private insurance through the online insurance marketplace created by the law. Subsidies are available to individuals with annual incomes between $11,490, the federal poverty level, and $45,960, which is four times the poverty threshold.

Cody falls into a coverage gap created in Florida and 24 other states, which declined to expand eligibility for Medicaid after the U.S. Supreme Court made that feature of the law optional.

“I’m so frustrated that I fall through the cracks again,” she says, describing how she sometimes injects insulin once a day, rather than twice, so she can afford to buy food.

The lack of coverage, combined with rampant poverty, push Hendry to near the bottom of state and national rankings for virtually every health indicator, including death rates from AIDS and pneumonia, hospitalization rates due to asthma, premature births, cancer screenings and prenatal care.

Like Cody, more than a quarter of Hendry’s residents fall below the poverty level – double the statewide percentage. Nearly 40 percent don’t have a high school diploma and 25 percent say they don’t speak English well.

“Most people in Hendry don’t qualify for anything,” says Lynne Thorp, a health law navigator for Health Planning Council of Southwest Florida, who gave Cody the bad news about her eligibility. “It’s horrible and really sad.”

There are no county figures on how many residents enrolled in private plans or Medicaid since open enrollment began in October, but navigators and other health officials say they are aware of just a few.

Jashi Harper, a health benefits navigator at Florida Community Health Centers Inc. in Clewiston, says about 900 of the center’s 4,500 patients are uninsured. About 20 have been enrolled in a plan at the center, she says, although some may have signed up on their own. Enrollment ends March 30.

The center has also tried to reach out to community residents through health fairs and visits to churches and child care facilities.

“I am stunned by how few people are signing up,” says Karson Turner, chairman of the Hendry County Commission, and a self-described conservative Democrat. He worries that most people have heard only criticisms of the law, which hurts enrollment efforts.

Another large group of residents for whom the health law will not change much are the hundreds of people living in Hendry illegally, mostly to work agricultural jobs, and are therefore ineligible for any coverage under the law.


Those who want Florida to expand Medicaid coverage say they will again push the legislature to approve it this spring, but with opponents in the Florida House dug in, the prospects are said to be poor.

Hendry County’s representative in the statehouse, Matt Hudson, last year helped lead the Republican opposition to Medicaid expansion in Florida. Although the federal government is paying the full cost of the expansion through 2016 and no less than 90 percent thereafter, he says the expansion would take money from efforts to improve education.

He also says there are not enough doctors to care for the 1 million Floridians who would have gained coverage.

“Those who would suffer most would be our most vulnerable residents, including our elderly population and those with disabilities,” Hudson said in September.

Michael Gervasi, CEO of Florida Community Health Centers, acknowledges that even with health coverage, some residents would still struggle to see specialists because they would have to travel an hour each way to the bigger cities.

Still, he said, coverage would help them get screenings and other health services available locally.

U.S. Sugar, which employs about 1,600 people in the area, has educated people about the new online marketplace, although it says its full-time workers already have coverage, says spokeswoman Judy Sanchez. She says the company employs about 100 to 200 seasonal and part -time workers in the fall, who are not offered coverage and who might benefit from the law.

There are some successes in Hendry. Laura Ann Martin, 31, food and beverage manager at her parents’ business, Roland & Mary Ann Martin’s Marina and Resort in Clewiston, went without coverage for six years until she became pregnant in November. Before the law, she would not have been able to get coverage because her pregnancy would have been considered a pre-existing condition. Now she has a private plan that started Jan. 1.

Still, when asked about Obamacare, Martin had mixed feelings. She said she worries about who will bear the costs of expanding coverage, and dislikes the requirement that employers with more than 50 workers must provide insurance.

“The law has its plusses and minuses,” she says.

–Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News, in collaboration with USA Today

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. A.S.F. says

    January 27, 2014 at 11:51 am

    If the woman described in your article isn’t disabled, with Diabetes and an inoperable brain tumor, who is? It is unfortunate that she, and many others like her, are so suspicious of the government (suspicions blown all out of proportion by FOX news, Rush Limbaugh and other Republican Kool-Aid dispensaries), that they will not hold their own representatives in Congress closer to the fire. She’s worried about the welfare of “small businesses? Really?? She ought to be a little more concerned about herself–and those of us who will inevitably be paying the freight for her uninsured medical expenses. I bet a lot of those “small businesses” wouldn’t hire her on a bet…And, if they did, they’d maybe offer her just enough hours to get their money’s worth out of her, without having to provide any benefits for her–like health insurance. The Neo-Conservative in Florida who like to call themselves Christians ought to be too ashamed of themselves to even dare to enter a church, given how they treat people like Ms.Cody. I doubt the actual the man on the cross in the front would approve.

    Reply
  2. Genie says

    January 27, 2014 at 2:18 pm

    If this woman is collecting a military retirement, she may be eligible for Tricare insurance coverage.

    Amazing how the hate spews at Republicans, when it was the Democrats and Obama who voted for this mess.

    Reply
    • A.S.F. says

      January 28, 2014 at 11:22 am

      @Genie says–“This mess” is now qualifying more uninsured Americans than ever before to get health insurance, instead of only the privileged group that had it before. The people who are getting screwed are people like Ms. Cody who, unfortunately, reside in states that are refusing their citizens life-saving federal funds to expand Medicaid…By the pompous selfish group who like to espouse “freedom” and “economy” as the main rationale for their utter lack of concern for those in real need. Talk about spewing hatred…How about the hate it takes to let other people literally die…on “principle”?

      Reply
    • Anita says

      January 28, 2014 at 5:30 pm

      “Cody falls into a coverage gap created in Florida and 24 other states, which declined to expand eligibility for Medicaid after the U.S. Supreme Court made that feature of the law optional.”

      Do you want to tell me very specifically, How this is Obama’s fault when the State of Florida, governed by Rick (“5th Amendment”) Scott DECLINED to expand eligibility? There’s no mystery as to why hate spews at republicans; it’s because of their hateful policies.

      Reply
  3. Mary Cannady says

    January 27, 2014 at 9:39 pm

    Matt Hudson should go visit these citizens who fall between the cracks. I don’t understand his reasoning for not accepting Federal funds. What bearing does that have on education in this state? Someone please explain that to me.

    Reply
  4. Sherry Epley says

    January 28, 2014 at 10:28 am

    This is a great example of those innocent people who slip through the cracks when political zealots like our “Tea Party” governor and his cronies label those who need assistance as “TAKERS” (AKA scum of the earth), and the greedy, self serving wealthy as “MAKERS”. What do they “make” exactly. . . except an extraordinary life for their families and “insider” friends!

    If Scott and the majority in our “soul less” legislature had taken the Federal Funds to expand Medicaid, this lady and many, many like her would receive the benefits that they deserve as US citizens. They should all be incredibly ashamed! The trouble is. . . they most certainly are not! Chances are our gullible, uneducated voters will even put some of them back in office for another term. How terrible! How Outrageous!!!

    Reply
    • Genie says

      January 28, 2014 at 5:51 pm

      @ ASF, Sherry: Not to worry. Crist works for an ambulance chaser. I’m sure he’ll work it all out.

      Reply
  5. Steve Wolfe says

    January 28, 2014 at 3:40 pm

    This is certainly a vibrant forum. But can’t we accept the challenge to make cogent arguments for our beliefs, devoid of over-the-top character assassination? After the trouble that Pierre goes to collecting the information for articles, I think we owe it to him to do better in the commentary, rather than diminishing his work with hatred and fits of rage. I’ll bet that if Pierre and I had coffee together and talked politics, neither of us might budge on our positions, but we wouldn’t devolve into a shouting match with personal attacks, rather we would show mutual respect. And I’m buying, Pierre.

    Reply

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