Medicaid Expansion Decisions Still Brewing In Some GOP States
News outlets also report on the latest expansion news from Mississippi and Arizona.
The Fiscal Times: States of Health: Winners & Losers In Medicaid
On a good day it only takes nine minutes to drive across the Ohio River between Clarksville, Ind., and Louisville, Ky. But for hundreds of thousands of uninsured poor and disabled people who live throughout Indiana and Kentucky, that short span defines a boundary between winners and losers in the political battle over expanding Medicaid coverage as part of the Affordable Care Act (Pianin, 6/11).
Politico: Mississippi's Medicaid Plan May Fail
A partisan feud over Obamacare's Medicaid expansion is threatening health care for thousands of low-income and elderly Mississippians whose coverage could be in jeopardy at the end of the month if lawmakers don’t come to a consensus. Both Republican Gov. Phil Bryant and Democratic state lawmakers face pressure to resolve their staring contest. If they don’t, the whole state Medicaid program — never mind any proposed expansion — would expire July 1 (Cheney, 6/11).
The Associated Press: Panel Rejects Medicaid, Full House Must Now Revive
Gov. Jan Brewer's plan to embrace a key part of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law will have to be resuscitated by the full Arizona House after a panel dominated by conservative Republicans rejected it outright on Monday. Between Democrats and a handful of moderate Republicans there appear to be the votes to do just that, and the party-line 7-4 Appropriations Committee vote at the end of nearly two hours of testimony was expected (Christie and Silva, 6/10).
Arizona Republic: Medicaid Showdown Today?
The Arizona House could consider Medicaid expansion as early as today, less than 24 hours after Republicans in a key committee defeated Gov. Jan Brewer’s top legislative priority. Leaders of a bipartisan coalition backing expansion of the health-care program for the poor met late Monday to plot their options for bringing the measure to a vote. A floor debate today offers the group its first opportunity to attach it to another bill (Reinhart, 6/10).
