Health Care Ruling and Medicaid

Posted on June 28, 2012 by townsend

• Uncertainty over whether states will choose to expand Medicaid, By Robert Pear, June 28, 2012, New York Times: “After the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a huge expansion of Medicaid in the 2010 health care law was an option and not a requirement for states, experts disagreed on whether states would take the option. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican who is an opponent of the health law, predicted that many states would choose not to expand Medicaid. Sara Rosenbaum, a George Washington University professor who supports the law, predicted that ‘only a small number of states’ would pass up the expansion, given the generous financial terms of the deal authorized by Congress. And Matt D. Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, which represents state officials, said his initial sense was that many states would accept the expansion…”
• Supreme Court ruling to aid poor, uninsured — and California’s budget, By Chad Terhune, June 28, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “With the federal healthcare law upheld, California stands to receive as much as $15 billion a year to extend coverage to millions of the poor and uninsured starting in 2014, and efforts will now intensify to get ready for that influx of new patients. ‘It’s a huge undertaking ahead of us,’ said Peter Lee, executive director of the California Health Benefit Exchange, which plans to start enrollment in October 2013. ‘The biggest challenge is getting reliable information out to the uninsured.’ The state has nearly 7 million uninsured, or about 20% of the population, according to the California HealthCare Foundation…”
• Justices uphold individual mandate, set limits On Medicaid expansion, By Jordan Rau and Julie Appleby, June 28, 2012, Kaiser Health News: “The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday upheld nearly all of the landmark federal health law, affirming its mandate that most everyone carry insurance, but complicating the government’s plan to extend coverage to the poorest Americans. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. joined the court’s four liberals in upholding the mandate, the best-known and least popular part of the law. The court also upheld hundreds of other rules embedded in the law designed to help millions more Americans obtain insurance and to refashion the health care industry. But a majority of the justices voted that the government could not compel states to expand Medicaid, the federal and state program for the poor, by threatening to withhold federal money to existing Medicaid programs…”
• Mystery after the health care ruling: Which states will refuse Medicaid expansion?, By Charles Ornstein, June 28, 2012, ProPublica: “For many people without insurance, a key question raised by the Supreme Court’s decision today to uphold the Affordable Care Act is whether states will decline to participate in the law’s big Medicaid expansion. Although the court upheld the law’s mandate requiring individuals to buy insurance, the justices said the act could not force states to expand Medicaid to millions by threatening to withhold federal funding. Republican leaders of some states already are saying they are inclined to say thanks, but no thanks…”
• Health ruling won’t cure states’ ills, By Louise Radnofsky, Thomas M. Burton and Jennifer Levitz, June 28, 2012, Wall Street Journal: “No matter how the Supreme Court rules Thursday on the federal health-care law, states will face huge struggles paying for ballooning health expenses and swelling uninsured populations-a problem that has prompted some states to draft their own overhaul plans. In its most highly anticipated decision in years, the court is expected to determine the fate of President Barack Obama’s 2010 law by Thursday morning. The historic ruling could reshape the health-care industry, shift legal precedent and amplify the already-divisive role health care has played in this year’s elections. But for states, any outcome still leaves them poorly equipped to tackle an issue that has become one of their biggest financial headaches. The Medicaid program for low-income Americans takes up twice as large a share of their state budgets as it did 25 years ago and is crowding out education spending in places…”