ACA and Medicaid Expansion

Posted on November 19, 2013 by admin

• Parnell: Alaska won’t expand Medicaid, By Lisa Demer, November 15, 2013, Anchorage Daily News: “In a closely watched and controversial decision, Gov. Sean Parnell announced Friday that Alaska will not participate in Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, describing it at a news conference as a ‘failed experiment.’ Expansion would have benefited 40,000 or more Alaskans, many of them low-income adults without children who currently have no health insurance. It also would have helped hospitals and doctors by reducing the amount of uncompensated care they have to write off and would have brought billions of federal dollars into the Alaska economy. But Parnell, a Republican running for reelection next year, described it as one of many troubled parts of health-care reform…”
• Wisconsin chooses its own path to overhaul Medicaid, By Erin Toner, November 19, 2013, National Public Radio: “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is one of 25 Republican governors who are rejecting the health law’s expansion of Medicaid. But Wisconsin’s own Medicaid program, known as BadgerCare, is more generous than that of many states, and now Walker wants to transfer many people out of BadgerCare and into the insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act. It’s a plan that allows Walker to reject a key part of Obamacare by turning down federal money offered to help states pay for the expansion of Medicaid. But it also may make it possible for Wisconsin to still provide health coverage to many of the state’s poor and working poor residents…”
• Medicaid expansion faces uphill fight in Missouri next year, By Eli Yokley, November 16, 2013, Joplin Globe: “After lawmakers left the state capitol in mid-May, the issue of whether to expand Missouri’s Medicaid rolls largely slipped from public discussion. Aside from a series of hearings on the issue, lawmakers through the summer instead focused on fights over a gun bill and taxes that dominated the veto session in September. But with less than two months before they return for the 2014 election-year legislative session, the issue is heating up again. There are even signs of hope for those advocating for an expansion of the Medicaid program so that Missouri will qualify for federal funds made available through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act…”
• Tennessee Governor hesitates on Medicaid expansion, frustrating many, By Rick Lyman, November 16, 2013, New York Times: “Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee describes it as ‘trying to thread a needle from 80 yards.’ Mr. Haslam is only the latest Republican tailor trying to figure out whether to expand the state’s Medicaid rolls as prescribed by President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. In his case, it involves trying — so far unsuccessfully — to balance some sharply conflicting concerns: struggling hospitals, local business groups, dwindling state resources and fierce conservative opposition to the new health care law…”
• Maine hires controversial figure to evaluate Medicaid program and expansion, By Steve Mistler, November 19, 2103, Kennebec Journal: “The state has hired the controversial former welfare chief of Pennsylvania to conduct a $1 million review of its Medicaid program and the impacts of expanding it through the federal health care law. The Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that it has contracted with The Alexander Group of Rhode Island to bolster ongoing ‘program integrity’ efforts and to assess the costs of expanding Medicaid – known here as MaineCare – through the Affordable Care Act. The contract is worth nearly $1 million, according to a copy of the document, and would employ the services of Gary Alexander, the former welfare chief in Pennsylvania, who was criticized for aggressive policy initiatives that dramatically cut the state’s Medicaid rolls, eliminating health care coverage for 89,000 children…”