States and Medicaid Expansion

Posted on September 27, 2012 by townsend

• Medicaid expansion rejected by Louisiana may be pursued in New Orleans, By Bruce Alpert, September 25, 2012, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “With Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration opting out of the Medicaid expansion offered in the federal Affordable Care Act, New Orleans officials say they are looking for ways to go it alone. Jindal announced his decision after the Supreme Court in June upheld the constitutionality of the health-care overhaul legislation but ruled that states can’t be compelled to expand Medicaid, a key component of President Barack Obama’s goal of providing near universal health coverage by 2014…”
• Report: Medicaid boost would save Arizona money, By Mary Reinhart, September 26, 2012, Arizona Republic: “Expanding Medicaid under federal health reform would save state tax dollars, create thousands of jobs and provide government-paid health care to hundreds of thousands of low-income Arizonans, according to a new report from a bipartisan think tank. Research from the Grand Canyon Institute, whose board includes former Republican and Democratic state lawmakers, shows that with a $1.5 billion investment over the first four years the state would collect nearly $8 billion in federal funding and insure an additional 435,000 people by 2017…”
• In Arkansas, governor changes course on health care to help uninsured, struggling Democrats, Associated Press, September 25, 2012, Washington Post: “President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul has never been popular in Arkansas, a state where even most Democrats regard the law as politically toxic. But with a quarter of the state’s working-age population uninsured, a governor who once said he would have voted against the law now wants to use it to widen government-funded coverage to thousands of additional families. And he’s relying on the move to help prevent a Republican takeover of the state Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. Gov. Mike Beebe, the first Southern governor to back the law’s expansion of Medicaid, has become an unlikely advocate for a central part of the overhaul that would expand Medicaid, a position made easier by the fact that he’s not seeking re-election…”