Obama Puts Pressure On Republicans To Expand State Medicaid Programs

[applegrove]

Obama Puts Pressure On Republicans To Expand State Medicaid Programs

Reuters, the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/01/obamacare-medicaid-expansion_n_7707918.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

"SNIP.................


Obamacare, as the president's law is known, envisions a major expansion of the program, but nearly half of all U.S. states, mostly Republican-controlled, have rejected that part of the law. The Tennessee legislature voted against an expansion in February, joining 21 other states in doing so.

Without expansion, 6.9 million low-income Americans, including 292,000 in Tennessee, will not get Medicaid assistance, said the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Taking questions at an elementary school, Obama urged Republicans state legislators to "open your hearts and think about the people here in Tennessee who are working hard and struggling and just need a little bit of help."

In total, states that have opted out of Obamacare's Medicaid expansion turned down $472.1 billion in federal funds that would have been used for that purpose in 2014 through 2024, said Kaiser.


..................SNIP"

[Rstrstx]

1. The article leaves out how they intend to do it

http://www.hhnmag.com/Daily/2015/May/uncompensated-care-low-income-patients-insurance-exchanges-king-vs-burwell-santamour

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150506/NEWS/150509935

If you don't want to read the articles, basically the federal government is threatening to take away the reimbursements it gives to hospitals (uncompensated care pools) in states that haven't accepted the Medicaid expansion. Florida is livid and filed suit against the HHS in April.

Whether the courts will let the administration do this is dubious - in NFIB of course they did not allow the HHS to strip a state of all its Medicaid funding, but this is a bit different. Whether the courts consider this to be crossing the line I don't know. HHS is certainly playing hardball.

The only thing I'd be willing to confidently predict is that, one way or another, the hospitals will get their money.

[Cali_Democrat]

2. I believe that funding pool was already scheduled to expire

So I'm not sure if the states have a case against HHS

[Rstrstx]

3. I'm not sure

It seems to come up for renewal every few years. If that's the case, that it's always understood to be something totally contingent on renewal at the discretion of the HHS, then it may be a hard sell in a court on the part of the states.

Here's a link to the Florida case:

http://www.flgov.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/001-Complaint-Filed.pdf

[Cha]

4. Thanks Obama.. mahalo apple!