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Republicans in Congress and statehouses across the country harbor an antipathy to Medicaid that is impossible to explain, except as hostility to the poor families that are its chief beneficiaries. Sam Brownback, the GOP governor of Kansas, translated ideology into action on Thursday when he vetoed a bill that would have made Kansas the 32nd state to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The measure would have brought health coverage to as many as 180,000 of his state’s residents, with the federal government picking up 95% of the tab this year. Yet in his veto message Brownback called the expansion an “irresponsible” budget-buster. (Michael Hiltzik, 3/31)

Medicaid expansion in deep red Kansas? It could happen, and if it could happen there, it could happen anywhere, including North Carolina. Health care advocates planned to spend the weekend deluging Kansas legislators with phone calls and emails, urging them to expand Medicaid to some 150,000 residents. The House and Senate – each controlled by Republicans – approved the expansion easily last week, and now will try to override a veto from Gov. Sam Brownback. (4/2)

Republicans in Richmond have a choice to make. They can choose to stand up for health and opportunity for their constituents and a stronger Virginia economy, or they can allow divisive partisan politics to continue to hurt their commonwealth. For the past 3½ years, Virginia has been engaged in a discussion about joining the 31 states that accepted federal funding to expand Medicaid and offer more citizens access to quality health care. If you are a taxpayer in Virginia, Republicans in Richmond have so far blocked your federal tax dollars from coming home, even as you have been paying for Medicaid expansion in West Virginia, Maryland and the District. (Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, 3/31)

Last week, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens appeared to open the door, however slightly, to expanding Missouri’s Medicaid program now that Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act have stalled. This would be an excellent idea, and long overdue. Missouri is one of 19 states that failed to expand Medicaid after the enactment of Obamacare in 2010. The decision has cost a state’s struggling economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs — to say nothing of improved health outcomes for 150,000 to 300,000 Missourians who could have become eligible for coverage. (4/1)

With Trumpcare dead for now, expect Republican governors to begin submitting waiver proposals to the Department of Health and Human Services to move their Medicaid programs in a more conservative direction. Medicaid "work requirements" are likely to be an element of many of those waiver requests, possibly from Republican-led states now looking to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. (Drew Altman, 4/3)

Medicaid is an efficient and effective health coverage program for Texas children, and federal and state governments should continue to stabilize and improve the program’s coverage and benefits for children. About 3.5 million children in Texas are enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP. That’s about half of the children living in Texas, yet children don’t drive Medicaid costs. Nondisabled children make up about 70 percent of the Medicaid caseload in Texas but account for only 30 percent of the spending. (Stacey E. Wilson, 4/2)

The state’s Medicaid program, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, has dodged a couple of bullets recently. But there is a bullet inevitably coming that it will not be able to dodge. (Robert Robb, 3/31)