Al.com: Sewell to Bentley: Clock's ticking on Medicaid

Access to quality and affordable healthcare should be a right and not a privilege.

To date, 29 states, including the District of Columbia, have made the critically important decision to expand Medicaid. I urge the State of Alabama to expand Medicaid without delay. Alabama's reluctance to expand Medicaid has placed access to quality health care out of reach for too many of our state's working poor families and individuals.

Nearly 200,000 Alabamians fall into the "coverage gap,"because they earn too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to purchase private insurance on their own. These individuals pay their taxes, work hard, and contribute to their communities. We should not deny them access to the health care they deserve. We cannot wait one more day!

I am encouraged that Governor Bentley created the Alabama Health Care Improvement Task Force to examine ways to increase access to health care in rural Alabama. Any task force with such a charge will see that in order to truly improve access to health care in Alabama, expanding Medicaid is critical. Any attempt to improve access without expansion would be futile. Currently, Alabama's Medicaid program is among the most restrictive in the country. The only eligible adults are those with children who earn less than 12 percent of the federal poverty level, an annual amount of about $1,600 for a family of two and $2,300 for a family of four. Without this expansion, Alabama cannot meet the health needs of the working poor, and rural hospitals will continue to face mounting financial challenges.

The reality is that no state which has refused to expand Medicaid has been better off without it. Under the expansion, the federal government will pay 100 percent of the costs for the first three years. States would then kick in a very small percentage each subsequent year. By 2020, the federal government will pay no less than 90 percent of the costs. The tremendous economic benefits from the expansion would more than offset any costs associated.

Put simply, the longer Alabama waits, the more money we lose as a state. Alabama turns away approximately $375 million in federal dollars each fiscal quarter that it rejects Medicaid expansion. The clock is ticking!

According to a 2013 study conducted by the Culverhouse College of Commerce at the University of Alabama, the Medicaid expansion would create $28 billion in overall business activity through 2020 and bring more than 30,000 new jobs annually.

A 2012 study conducted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham's School of Public Health found that the Medicaid expansion would generate $20 billion in new economic activity and increase tax revenues by $925 million through 2020. Expanding Medicaid is clearly not only a moral imperative, but an economic one as well.

With each day that our state delays an expansion, more Alabamians are unable to work due to unrelated health conditions. More rural hospitals will forced to cut services because of uncompensated care provided in their emergency rooms, and Alabamians will continue to forgo the immense economic benefits that would result from expanding Medicaid.

The greatest casualties of our state's inaction are our most vulnerable citizens and the health care community that provides vital medical care and treatment to this population. We owe it to all Alabamians and I urge our state leaders to set aside party politics and do the right thing. Expand Medicaid now!