....They’re willing to accept Obamacare money so long as they can plausibly sell it as not Obamacare, and they want to use their leverage to attach conservative reform ideas to Medicaid. At the Washington Post, Sarah Kliff has called these measures “making Medicaid more Republican.” Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan and Pennsylvania have already advanced unique versions of Medicaid expansion thanks to waivers that feature GOP-backed wrinkles to the program; Indiana has submitted a waiver pending approval from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, while Tennessee, Wyoming and Utah have developed proposals after active negotiations with the feds; and lots of other states are taking a look, including North Carolina, Georgia, and even Texas. That’s good news for those states poorer residents, who have been left to fend for themselves while state legislatures offer massive resistance to Obamacare. In practice, however, crafting plans that are ostensibly more conservative has tended to add layers of bureaucracy and administrative complexity. The Republicanized versions of Medicaid thus far have ended up more complicated, confusing, and possibly costlier than the program Republicans refused to expand in the first place.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 21:37:33 +0000
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