States and Medicaid Expansion

States could leave millions of low-income people uninsured in a new Medicaid ‘doughnut hole’, Associated Press, July 17, 2012, Washington Post: “For Gov. Rick Perry, saying ‘no’ to the federal health care law could also mean turning away up to 1.3 million Texans, nearly half the uninsured people who could be newly eligible for coverage in his state. Gov. Chris Christie not only would be saying ‘no’ to President Barack Obama, but to as many as 245,000 uninsured New Jersey residents as well. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling gave governors new flexibility to reject what some Republicans deride as ‘Obamacare.’ But there’s a downside, too. States that reject the law’s Medicaid expansion risk leaving behind many of their low-income uninsured residents in a coverage gap already being called the new ‘doughnut hole’ – a reference to a Medicare gap faced by seniors…”