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Gov. Chris Christie on Monday boasted the success of expanding the Medicaid program in the state, arguing the "naysayers" have been "proven wrong" and that 566,000 additional New Jerseyans have insurance coverage. It's been three years since Christie announced he planned to buck his party and embrace President Obama's Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. He was one of only a handful of GOP governors to embrace the changes. (Arco and Livio, 8/29)

Gov. Christie said Monday that more than a half-million New Jersey residents have gained health insurance as a result of his decision to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, even as he blasted President Obama's health-care law as an "incredible failure." ... Conservatives criticized Christie when he agreed to expand the program in 2013 and during his unsuccessful presidential campaign this election cycle, arguing that he had embraced Obamacare and that states wouldn't be able to shoulder the costs. (Seidman, 8/30)

Christie is one of several Republican governors to accept the expansion of Medicaid under ObamaCare, but is among the most prominent in that group as a former presidential candidate who is now an adviser to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R), also accepted ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion, though he put a conservative spin on it — by making beneficiaries pay premiums to pick up a share of the cost, for example. Christie and Pence, though, are both opposed to the healthcare law as a whole. (Sullivan, 8/29)

Congressman John Yarmuth is accusing Gov. Matt Bevin of plotting to end Medicaid expansion in Kentucky. Yarmuth is the only Democrat in Kentucky's congressional delegation, and a big supporter of the Affordable Care Act. He calls the governor's proposed Medicaid reforms "devious." ... He says Gov. Matt Bevin's plan to reform Medicaid will in fact cause more than 400,000 Kentuckians to lose the coverage they gained under Obamacare. (Smith, 8/29)

Idaho lawmakers assessing health care alternatives for the state’s working poor demonstrated again the divisions that make it unlikely they will reach consensus on a bill for the Legislature. Half of a 10-member panel of legislators voiced outright opposition Monday to any version of Medicaid expansion to cover the estimated 78,000 Idaho adults who have no health coverage. That so-called gap group either earns too much to qualify for existing Medicaid or too little to be eligible for subsidized insurance on the state health care exchange created under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Expanding Medicaid to cover such populations was part of the ACA, known popularly as Obamacare. (Dentzer, 8/29)

The state Medicaid director announced his resignation Monday in a letter to the agency's board, noting it was the "right time to explore options in the private sector." Oklahoma Health Care Authority CEO Nico Gomez, 44, told the board in his letter that he was stepping down after 20 years of public service .... Over the past two years, the agency has lost more than $868 million in state and federal dollars, as a result of state budget cuts and losing matching federal money as a result of those cuts. The agency's board has approved repeated rate cuts, paying medical professionals less and less for the services they provide to thousands of low-income Oklahomans. (Cosgrove and Green, 8/29)

The company managing TennCare's dental benefits for Medicaid-eligible children increased the number of kids receiving care since winning the contract, federal data show. In the past year the number of children receiving care under the program increased 3 percentage points from TennCare's baseline 53 percent participation rate when DentaQuest won the contract in 2013, said Steven Brady, DentaQuest's Tennessee executive director. (Fletcher, 8/29)