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Several GOP governors met with the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday to discuss the future of Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Also, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has asked all governors to submit the changes they'd like made to Medicaid and Obamacare. ... [Ohio Gov. John] Kasich, one of the early GOP governors to embrace expansion, defended portions of the Affordable Care Act on Thursday. He noted that people, particularly those with pre-existing conditions, want to make sure they don't lose their coverage. (Luhby, 1/19)

Several Republican governors are defending ObamaCare's expansion of Medicaid in their states, highlighting a thorny issue for the party as lawmakers navigate repeal of the healthcare reform law. Full repeal would mean eliminating the law’s expansion of eligibility for Medicaid coverage, which has provided insurance for about 11 million new people in 31 states. Many of those states have Republican governors who are wary of their constituents losing coverage and of their state budgets losing the infusion of federal money that came with the expansion of the program, which affects low-income citizens. (Sullivan, 1/19)

"There are some fundamental things that we can do that can settle people down, so they are not worried they are going to lose their coverage, but at the same time bring significant changes to the Obamacare package," [Ohio Gov. John] Kasich, a former Republican presidential candidate, told reporters after the meeting with other Republican governors and lawmakers hosted by the Senate finance committee. (Cornwell, 1/19)

Republican governors told members of a key Senate panel on Thursday that they want more flexibility when it comes to Medicaid. That was the focus of a roughly two-hour, closed-door meeting among several GOP governors and Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, which is set to play a key role in crafting legislation that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Officials inside the meeting described it as a listening session, during which Finance Committee members spoke little and governors made presentations about what they’d like to see. (McIntire, 1/19)

“Nobody’s going to lose coverage,” Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said after the meeting. “If there’s one word that came up most, it’s flexibility. One-size-fits-all Washington doesn’t take into account the differences between a state like Texas with 28 million people and a state like South Dakota, for example.” (Tracer and Edney, 1/19)

If Congress moves forward with health care changes, Gov. Robert Bentley wants the states to have more power to determine eligibility and benefits for Medicaid recipients, end federal marketplaces for health insurance and replacement of the individual mandate for health insurance with incentives for enrollment. But in a letter to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Bentley also asked Congress to maintain federal funding for the Alabama Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The governor also asked for at least 18 months to put in place any changes approved by Congress. (Lyman, 1/19)

[Michigan Gov. Rick] Snyder said he “appreciates” the national challenges involved in keeping Obamacare or Medicaid expansion, but added, “We have over 600,000 Michiganders (on the Healthy Michigan program) and we have a lot of positive data showing some good things going on in our state." (Spangler, 1/19)

The future of how Medicaid unfolds, and possible block grants or additional states choosing to expand programs, will be important to the health care industry in the coming years as the next administration and Congress pen the next wave of health care reform, analysts said Thursday at panel in Nashville. Calls to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act could evolve into a series of repairs and changes that come into place over the course of several years, according to health care equity analysts at a 'Wall Street's View on Prospects for the Health Care Industry' panel hosted by the Nashville Health Care Council. (Fletcher, 1/19)

Gov. Roy Cooper delivered a short but heartily received speech to a conference of public health officials on Thursday, asking them to help convince lawmakers to expand Medicaid coverage. “I need your help,” Cooper said. “I know a lot of you are in public employment, but your First Amendment rights aren’t taken away. I need you to speak out.” Cooper addressed more than 400 people during lunch at the Marriott Crabtree hotel in Raleigh. It was the annual state health directors conference of the N.C. Public Health Association. (Jarvis, 1/19)

After briefly dangling a promise to deliver universal coverage to Americans, Trump has abruptly pulled it back and offered as a substitute an old GOP chestnut – a major overhaul of the nation’s Medicaid system, which was expanded to 133 percent of the poverty line under President Obama and included able-bodied people without dependent children. Contrary to the Republicans’ promises of improvements and broader coverage, some analysts have warned that block granting Medicaid could have an adverse impact on some of the country’s poorest people. (Pianin, 1/20)