States and Medicaid Expansion

Posted on April 12, 2013 by admin

• Despite health challenges, Southern states resist Medicaid expansion, By Tony Pugh, April 11, 2013, Miami Herald: “Michael White’s high blood pressure is acting up again. The 51-year-old casino janitor has recurring seizures and recently awoke in an ambulance after passing out at a bus stop. ‘It doesn’t hit me suddenly,’ White said. ‘It creeps up on me. I get this feeling like I’m outside of my own body.’ If White had insurance, he’d be under the care of a primary physician and taking medications regularly. But he can’t afford job-based health insurance on his $8-an-hour wage and he earns too much to qualify for Medicaid, the state-federal health plan for poor people and those with disabilities…”
• Battle lines solidify in Medicaid debate, By Joe Hallett and Catherine Candisky, April 12, 2013, Columbus Dispatch: “In a historic rebuke, Gov. John Kasich got rolled by his own party this week, victimized by a tea party-inspired evisceration of his plan to expand Medicaid coverage despite his passionate pleas that the lives of Ohio’s neediest residents hang in the balance. By saying no to broadening Medicaid’s reach, House Republicans turned against groups that historically have been their political allies and campaign contributors, including the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Right to Life, major health insurers and other influential groups supporting the expansion. Instead, House Republicans stripped Kasich’s two-year budget of Medicaid services for 275,000 more Ohio adults without health-care coverage, which were to be paid for by $13 billion in federal aid over seven years. That would have saved state taxpayers $400 million over the next two years. Longtime Statehouse observers said they can’t remember anything like it…”
• House Medicaid alternative would subsidize far fewer poor Floridians than expansion plan, By Tia Mitchell, April 11, 2013, Miami Herald: “House Republicans offered a bare-bones alternative to expanding Medicaid on Thursday, bypassing more than $50 billion in federal aid while setting up a clash with Gov. Rick Scott and the more moderate Senate. The House’s plan would cover up to 130,000 disabled adults and adults with children, far less than the estimated 1 million Floridians who could be covered by federal money. The plan would offer enrollees $2,000 a year in state assistance to help them purchase insurance on a state-run health exchange. It would cost the state as much as $266 million annually. In a statement Thursday, Scott all but rejected the approach…”
• Gov. Brewer rallies Medicaid allies, By Bob Christie (AP), April 12, 2013, Arizona Republic: “Gov. Jan Brewer held the latest in a series of rallies at the Capitol on Thursday to show she has broad support for her proposal to expand Medicaid to about 300,000 more poor Arizonans. And her efforts may be paying off. A growing number of lawmakers in both parties believe the Legislature will pass Brewer’s expansion. That’s a change from earlier this year, when the main voices heard in the debate were those of conservative Republicans opposed to the expansion, a signature part of President Barack Obama’s heath care overhaul law…”
• Montana GOP working on alternative to Medicaid expansion, By Charles S. Johnson, April 12, 2013, Missoulian: “Some legislative Republicans and others are scrambling to come up with an alternative to Medicaid expansion, instead using public funds to help uninsured, low-income Montanans buy private health insurance. Yet with just 14 working days remaining until the Legislature is scheduled to adjourn, those working on the proposals say time is getting short…”