Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Outcome Of Governors' Races Key To Health Law's Medicaid Expansion
You won't find Obamacare listed on any state ballots this year, but the future of its coverage expansion will hinge on the outcome of gubernatorial races across the country. Voters in 15 of the 23 states that haven't expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act will go to the polls on Tuesday, and the outcome of those elections will play a major role in determining the reach of President Obama's health-care law. (Millman, 11/3)
Georgia health advocates were long hopeful that Republican Gov. Nathan Deal would expand the state鈥檚 Medicaid program after winning reelection. But on the eve of the vote, they know he has likely closed the door. (Wheaton, 11/3)
And new聽data show that an additional three million people would have gotten coverage聽had the Supreme Court upheld聽the health law's聽mandated聽Medicaid expansion -
An extra 3 million people would have gained health insurance if the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of the Obama administration's Medicaid plans two years ago, according to new data. If all states had expanded their eligibility for the low-income insurance program, the percent of people without insurance nationwide would have fallen by two percentage points, according to a model created by the nonprofit group Enroll America and a data analytics group called Civis. The data was analyzed and published by the New York Times on Monday. (Ferris, 11/3)
