Kansas Health Industry, Patient Advocates ‘Not Ready To Give Up Yet’ On Medicaid Expansion
After coming so close to moving the state to "yes" on expanding its Medicaid program, activists say they will be back to continue the fight. Also, North Carolina Democrats and advocates renew their push for expansion.
Stat:
Kansas Activists Vow To Keep Fighting To Expand Medicaid
The failed veto override also crushed hospital executives and community clinic directors who had hoped against hope for a Medicaid expansion, which would have brought in a flood of federal dollars to help pay for the care they now often deliver for free. The expansion would have covered an estimated 150,000 Kansans. ...When he vetoed expansion [of] the Medicaid expansion late last month, Governor Sam Brownback said the proposal was riddled with flaws: “I am vetoing this expansion of Obamacare because it fails to serve the truly vulnerable before the able-bodied, lacks work requirements to help able-bodied Kansans escape poverty, and burdens the state budget with unrestrainable entitlement costs.” (Martin, 4/4)
WRAL (Raleigh, N.C.):
Calls To Expand Medicaid Renewed
Democratic legislators and left-leaning health care advocacy groups again called Tuesday for the General Assembly to move forward with Medicaid expansion. Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham, Sen. Erica Smith-Ingram, D-Northampton, and Health Action North Carolina, an organization comprised of grassroots and health care-related advocacy groups, said the legislature should move forward with Medicaid expansion in the wake of Congress' recent failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act. (Nunn, 4/4)
Meanwhile, in other Medicaid news —
Indianapolis Star:
Medicaid Smokers Cost Indiana $540 Million A Year
Most people know that smokers rack up higher healthcare costs than non-smokers do. But the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation wanted to know just how much more smokers on Medicaid cost the state of Indiana. The answer? More than half a billion dollars. (Rudavsky, 4/5)
