Alaska, Montana Governors Push For Medicaid Expansion
A newly elected governor in Alaska and a Montana incumbent advocate expansion of the federal-state program for the poor, while a federal court rejects Maine's effort to drop some young people, and California is sued for dropping many beneficiaries from its rolls.
Modern Healthcare:
Alaska's Medicaid Future Uncertain Despite Pro-expansion Governor
Alaska Gov.-elect Bill Walker's finally determined victory Saturday over incumbent Republican Sean Parnell could mean Alaska will be one of the next states to expand Medicaid. But whether the GOP-controlled Legislature will attempt to block such a move is open to debate. “I would hope the Legislature would try not to block him on his first major policy move,” said Les Gara, a Democratic member of the Alaska House of Representatives. Walker ran a campaign that included criticizing the Legislature, a tactic that could come back to haunt him in a Medicaid expansion fight, said Tom Anderson, a political consultant and former Republican state legislator who is now a partner at Optima Public Relations. (Dickson, 11/17)
The Associated Press:
Bullock Budget Pushes For Medicaid Expansion
Mont. Gov. Steve Bullock released a two-year budget proposal Monday that pushes for Medicaid expansion and water, sewer and road projects as well as money for pre-kindergarten programs and increased funding for mental health services. Overall the proposal would increase state spending by 5.5 percent in fiscal year 2016 and 2.83 percent in 2017. Bullock said the increases are offset by expected revenue growth of 7 percent in 2016 and just over 6 percent in 2017. He said his priorities encompass improving the state's economy, education and health care. (Baumann, 11/17)
Reuters:
U.S. Court Rejects Maine's Effort To Trim Medicaid Rolls
A federal appeals court on Monday rejected Maine's effort to trim some young people from its Medicaid rolls, saying the move would violate the Affordable Care Act. Maine Republican Governor Paul LePage, a critic of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, which is also known as Obamacare, had proposed in 2012 cutting non-disabled 19- and 20-year-olds from the state's Medicaid program to help balance the budget. A judge on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said on Monday the move would violate a key provision of the Affordable Care Act that forbids states from tightening Medicaid eligibility requirements for at least nine years. (Sherwood, 11/17)
Kaiser Health News:
As California Expands Medicaid To New Beneficiaries, Many Others Are Dropped
When it comes to expanding health coverage to its poorest residents, California could be taking two steps forward and one step back. Even as the state celebrates its enrollment of more than 2.7 million low-income Californians in Medi-Cal in 2014, it may drop an unusually high number of beneficiaries from its rolls by year’s end. (Gold, 11/18)
The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Pa. Prepares For Health Care Coverage Onslaught
The state Department of Public Welfare chief said Monday that her agency was prepared for an onslaught when enrollment for "Healthy PA," Pennsylvania's Medicaid expansion alternative, begins in less than two weeks. The website dedicated to enrolling hundreds of thousands of uninsured low-income Pennsylvanians under the Affordable Care Act is seeing a spike in users following the launch of a $2 million statewide ad blitz. The state anticipates that about 600,000 people - many of them the working poor - are eligible to get coverage beginning Jan. 1 under the Corbett administration's proposal, which uses Medicaid funding to pay private insurers. (Worden, 11/17)
CQ Healthbeat:
Medicaid Officials Extend Current Indiana Program
Federal Medicaid officials renewed Indiana’s current waiver program for one more year in order to give the state and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services more time to negotiate on an expansion of the program under the health care law.
Republican Gov. Mike Pence submitted his new plan for approval in July, but talks between the state and CMS officials have become difficult in recent months. Pence met with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell in October. Burwell later said that the two sides have been discussing the “core parameters that are both statutory and policy in terms of what Medicaid needs to provide.” (Adams, 11/17)
