One of many benefits of Medicaid expansion – which our governor wants none of – is to increase the survival rate for people with cancer and other chronic diseases. Access to preventive benefits, including low-cost screenings, early stage diagnostic services and more effective treatment services early, leads to increased likelihood of survival.

If Gov. Nikki Haley gets her way with the Legislature, none of these benefits will be available to people below 100 percent of poverty. Their only treatment will continue to be – late in the disease – the hospital emergency room.

Another benefit is reduced cost to small business. Employees with health insurance miss many fewer days of work. The business owners do not pay the higher cost of private insurance.

And “Plan B,” produced by the S.C. House, is not an acceptable alternative to Medicaid expansion, according to the president and CEO of South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. He testified before the Senate medical affairs Affordable Care Act subcommittee that small businesses in South Carolina would like to have the Legislature endorse Medicaid expansion.

Mary Keenan

Rock Hill