Medicaid Recipients May Pay Doctor Fees

{Charleston, West Virginia}…The state Medicaid program provides health care to about 420,000 low-income West Virginians. Right now, the program covers West Virginians making about 30 percent of the federal poverty level. Governor Earl Ray Tomblin is deciding whether the state will join a federal effort to expand the Medicaid program to insure people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. That's roughly $32,000 for a family of four. That would add about 130,000 people to the state's Medicaid rolls. If West Virginia expands its Medicaid program to cover 130,000 more people, unknown thousands of them might be asked to pay modest fees to visit the doctor.