Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Kansas Health Industry, Patient Advocates 'Not Ready To Give Up Yet' On Medicaid 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)
