States and Medicaid Expansion

Posted on March 29, 2013 by admin

• Missouri House approves budget, no money for Medicaid expansion, By Elizabeth Crisp, March 29, 2013, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “The Missouri House approved a nearly $25 billion state spending plan Thursday that calls for slight increases in education funding and modest raises for most state employees in the coming year, but it doesn’t include expansion of the state’s Medicaid rolls. Gov. Jay Nixon and other Democrats, as well as health care and business groups, have spent several months pushing for a federal Affordable Care Act-driven expansion of the health care program for the poor. But the Republican-controlled House blocked multiple attempts this week to add the more than $900 million in federal dollars to the state budget proposal and expand eligibility to an estimated 300,000 Missourians…”
• Pence administration claims authority to negotiate Medicaid deal with feds, By Eric Bradner, March 27, 2013, Evansville Courier and Press: “Indiana lawmakers don’t need to approve legislation related to a Medicaid expansion because Gov. Mike Pence already has authority to negotiate with federal officials, his administration’s top human services official said Wednesday. That was the assessment of Debra Minott, secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration, as she fielded questions from the House Public Health Committee. The panel has been working on a bill that would set parameters for an expansion of Medicaid through the federal health care law. If the state opts to go forward with an expansion, around 400,000 more Hoosiers would qualify for government-funded health insurance. But the state would only do so using the health savings account-based Healthy Indiana Plan as a vehicle, Pence has said…”
• Business groups optimistic about TennCare deal, By Chas Sisk and Getahn Ward, March 29, 2013, The Tennessean: “Health care and business groups are putting their faith in Gov. Bill Haslam’s ability to hammer out a deal on TennCare. But there are no signs of a master strategy that could bring that bargain about or drive it through the legislature. After months of doom-saying, health care and business groups have held their tongues following Wednesday’s momentous announcement that the state would not start offering TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program, to 180,000 more uninsured Tennesseans. The decision appeared to put the state on track to miss out on more than $400 million in federal funding in the first half of 2014 to pay for expansion and more than $1 billion a year after that…”