This is pretty close to my own situation, and I live in Missouri, which could not afford to expend Medicaid, so no insurance for me. If I do get sick, ObamaCare only makes it more expensive for me!

I'm from Missouri (KC) too and would like to help you search for options. Also, if you are able to run your own business doing what your description says and are pulling in only $20k you might want to look for some corporate jobs. It may not be easiest - but I know a few places in KC are hiring and looking for talent that would pay far more with benefits.

I live about 2.5 hours southish of Kansas City.

If things don't get better within a few months, I am going to be doing just that. My profile hasn't been updated in forever (like since I opened the account) but I do or have done everything in that list. I could add Python programming to that list, as I have been teaching myself over the past year. Thanks for the offer, right now I am trying to figure out what the future has in store for me and my family.

My understanding is that the feds cover Medicaid expansion for the first year (and partially thereafter for a time?), so "could not afford to exp[a]nd Medicaid" is not quite correct - especially in the short term, though it's possible there's something I've missed (is there a requirement the state continue if they start, that hasn't been discussed? or another gotcha somewhere?). Obviously, there's possible political cost to "dropping people from Medicaid" after the one year, but that being worse than keeping them off Medicaid for that year and forward is... human, but strange.

Solution: move to a state which is not so rabidly against the health of its citizens that it won't subsidize healthcare for those earning below the poverty level.

Perhaps, but that is more easily said than done. For both me (to move) or for the State (to pay for the expansion of Medicaid)- remember, the State can't just print money like the Federal Government can!

As far as moving, I have many other considerations, and my wife and son have good insurance, so I am satisfied to stay where I am (physically) for now while we work on the financial issues.

> Perhaps, but that is more easily said than done. For both me (to move) or for the State (to pay for the expansion of Medicaid)- remember, the State can't just print money like the Federal Government can!

Just to let you know, this is not about the state not having the money. This is about them not accepting the money from the federal government solely out of political spite. And you and your family are on the receiving end of that.

Just so you know, the Federal Government never made any offer to pay for the cost- sure, they were going to float the bill a few years, but after that?.... Yeah, the State would have to pick up the tab.

Perhaps it was political spite, but to say there were no real concerns for how the State was going to pay for it is itself, a partisan, politically motivated statement.

Just went on a fact-checking expedition: http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3161

> CBO estimates show that the federal government will bear nearly 93 percent of the costs of the Medicaid expansion over its first nine years.

> The additional cost to the states represents a 2.8 percent increase in what states would have spent on Medicaid from 2014 to 2022 in the absence of health reform.

> This 2.8 percent figure overstates the net impact on state budgets because it does not reflect the savings that state and local governments will realize in health-care costs for the uninsured.

So no, I don't consider my statement to be partisan, given that the facts back it up. Your government just doesn't care all that much about you getting insured.

Every state will have different numbers, though, and I don't know what Missouri's are.

However, you have completely ignored what happens after the 'first nine years'. Sure, a lot of politicians don't care about the future, especially if they don't plan on being in office at that point (or being in a different office). But perhaps Missouri's legislature does?