Inga Sandahl, an ER nurse at St. Luke’s Hospital who is also studying for her nurse practitioner degree, recently presented the results of a year of research at an economic summit in Washington, D.C.
Sandahl’s presentation focused on her conclusion that states cannot afford President Obama’s proposed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in 2014 when federal poverty guidelines are changed and millions of additional people are covered by Medicaid. For the state of North Carolina, Sandahl said, an additional 543,000 people would be covered by Medicaid, which would add $871 million to the state budget annually.
“There is absolutely no way states can afford 11.6 million more people on Medicaid,” Sandahl said.
As a third-year student in the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) graduate program at Western Carolina University, Sandahl is required to research, publish and present her findings. With direction from her professors, Sandahl said, “I chose to focus my research on the effect on Medicaid in 2014. Since I am not in politics and I don’t have a background in law, I often took each paragraph and researched the wording . . . I had to understand the numerous components,” she said.
She submitted her abstract to be presented during the annual Economic Summit and found out shortly after that her research was selected to be presented with time for questions and answers.