Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
For Many Red States, Getting To 'Yes' On Medicaid Expansion Is Difficult
The epic collapse of the Obamacare repeal bill created an odd opportunity for 19 states that have long shunned Medicaid expansion. Billions in Obamacare cash remain on the table. And for the first time, that cash comes with a Trump administration promise to give states unprecedented flexibility to remake the program with a conservative slant — for instance, by imposing work requirements or requiring more recipients to pay premiums. Yet with few exceptions, most of the holdout states are walking away from the money and what they regard as a broken entitlement program. (Pradhan, 3/31)
Lawmakers voted Thursday to keep Arkansas' hybrid Medicaid expansion for another year as the state's governor prepares to seek new limits on the first-in-the-nation program. The House approved by a 77-13 vote the state's Medicaid budget, which includes the hybrid expansion. The proposal now heads to Gov. Asa Hutchinson's desk. More than 300,000 people are on the program, which uses Medicaid funds to purchase private insurance for low-income residents. (DeMillo, 3/30)
Lynn Rodemann, 36, has been politically active for her entire life, but these days finds it difficult to stomach following the news. That's because she and her partner, James Hosticka, 41, receive their healthcare coverage from Medicaid, via a 2014 Ohio expansion of the government healthcare program that was a component of the Affordable Care Act, the federal healthcare law also known as Obamacare. (Tobias, 3/30)
