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Indiana Gov. Mike Pence has joined a growing list of Republican governors using Obamacare as a way to expand Medicaid. Pence announced Thursday a blueprint of conservative reforms to extend health coverage to a larger share of low-income residents, some of which already have been adopted by other red states, Politico reports. Pence said his proposal was "the kind of health reform that puts working Hoosiers in the driver's seat," according to Politico. Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll The plan outlines a number of specific proposals including: placing enrollees...

NBER Report: Medicaid Expansion Reduces Incentives to Work Sean Riley | May 15, 2014 | Add a comment A working paper released this month from the National Bureau of Economic Research concludes that public insurance programs reduce incentives to work for low-income childless adults—precisely the population Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act targets. The paper comes on the heels of the widely-cited February 2014 Congressional Budget Office report estimating that the ACA, including Medicaid expansion, would cause a decline of 2.5 million full-time-equivalent employees by 2024. In that case, proponents of the ACA defended the findings by arguing it...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- It's been two months since Rodrigo Salido left the maximum security wing at Santa Rita jail, and two months without pills for his bipolar disorder. Now Salido, who served two years for burglary, assault and gang involvement, has no health insurance and few options for refilling his medication. California and 25 other states, under a provision of President Obama’s health law, opened up Medicaid to single and so-called “childless” adults. The change in eligibility criteria will extend Medicaid coverage to vast numbers of ex-offenders whose incomes are below the federal poverty line. Men and women involved in...

It looks as if Indiana may soon join the list of red states signing up for the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion. Republican Gov. Mike Pence, after months of discussions with the Obama administration, offered a plan Thursday to expand Medicaid coverage to low-income uninsured Hoosiers. About two dozen states still haven't joined the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion, which extends coverage to low-income adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Some states like Texas and Louisiana appear entrenched in their opposition to major elements of the health care law. Other Republican states, however, are still...

And Another Republican Governor Embraces ObamaCare's Medicaid Expansion Yesterday we covered how Arkansas Republicans went along with ObamaCare, today another GOP Governor drinks the Kool-Aid. Et tu, Mike Pence? More than a year in the making, HIP 2.0, as his staff has nicknamed it, would replace traditional Medicaid for all non-disabled Hoosiers ages 19 to 64 with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. If accepted by the Obama administration, it would expand coverage to an additional 350,000 Hoosiers who now lack a viable health insurance option, the governor's staff estimates. ... If approved, the move could...

Nearly one-third of California’s total population -- roughly 11.5 million people -- will be enrolled in Medi-Cal next year.. Enrollment is expected to exceed previous estimates by 1.4 million, and administration officials said it would cost the state $1.2 billion more than originally thought.

The health care law has opened up an unusual opportunity for some mothers-to-be to save on medical bills for childbirth. Lower-income women who signed up for a private policy in the new insurance exchanges will have access to additional coverage from their state’s Medicaid program if they get pregnant. Some women could save hundreds of dollars on their share of hospital and doctor bills. Medicaid already pays for nearly half of U.S. births, but this would create a way for the safety-net program to supplement private insurance for many expectant mothers. Officials and advocates say the enhanced coverage will be...

A new report finds that Obamacare customers are in for sticker shock because, unlike many employer-sponsored insurance plans, the fine print in many Obamacare policies requires patients to meet their deductible before lower-cost prescription drug co-pays kick in. That means hefty out-of-pocket expenses for Obamacare plan holders, especially since Obamacare deductibles are "relatively high" as compared to employer-sponsored insurance plans. The report, which was conducted by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and Breakaway Policy, concludes that even Obamacare customers who receive taxpayer-funded subsidies will "find it difficult to afford the amounts they will have to pay out-of-pocket before their Exchange...

RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is considering expanding health coverage for the poor without the approval of the state legislature, a move that would muscle his top priority past Republican opponents but also throw his young administration into a partisan firestorm and uncertain legal territory. McAuliffe and his top advisers have consulted lawyers, health-care experts and legislators on how to bypass the GOP-dominated House of Delegates, according to three people familiar with the discussions. A fourth, who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal private strategy, said the office of...

Spending on health care grew an astounding 9.9% in the Bureau of Economic Analysis' advance estimate of first-quarter GDP. It's the biggest percent change in health-care spending since 1980, when health-care spending jumped 10% in the third quarter. Analysts said it's primarily due to a consumption boost from the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Adjusted for inflation, America is spending more on health care than ever before.Personal consumption grew by 3.0%, about half of which was due to the growth in health-care spending, said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist for Pantheon Macroeconomics. "If health-care spending had been unchanged, the headline GDP growth number would have...

President Obama is doing his victory dance, telling us how his health care plan has become a success because his more than his targeted number (8 million) clicked their desire to have health insurance on a website. We will soon see how many are real policyholders, and later we will see their real costs as everything shakes out with co-pays and renewals next year. What we do know is that Medicaid is a pending disaster waiting to happen. When the Obamacare registration period started we were regularly hearing about all those new Medicaid sign-ups. Then we did not hear about...

Have you ever wondered why ObamaCare is burdened with so much complexity? Here's the answer: Barack Obama. Obama? Yes, the president himself. He campaigned on the promise that he would put partisanship aside and unite the country behind sensible answers to pressing problems. Then he didn't. How could that possibly have worked in health care? Easy. Obama could have adopted the approach taken by his 2008 opponent, John McCain. In fact we now know that Zeke Emanuel and others on the White House staff were urging him to do just that. Also, before he became the president's chief economic adviser,...

Getting teens to sign up for the Affordable Care Act and learn how to obtain contraceptives through Obamacare, was the focus of an event hosted by the D.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy at the Church of Scientology’s National Affairs Office in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, a gathering that featured officials from the Health and Human Services Department and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) . Wilma Robinson, deputy director of the HHS Office of Adolescent Health, said she was attending to explain “the impact of the Affordable Care Act on adolescents,” which she defined as girls and boys...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) admitted Friday it’s “difficult to turn the clock back” on ObamaCare, but proposed making the law voluntary as a possible fix for consumers. “I think it’s going to be difficult to turn the clock back. People get assumed and accustomed to receiving things, particularly things that they get for free,” he told a crowd of students at Harvard’s Institute of Politics on Friday. Paul’s comments echo those of other Republicans who have admitted it will be difficult to fully repeal the law after some of its more popular provisions took effect. The potential 2016 presidential candidate...

Earlier today, Oregon became the first state-run health exchange to adopt the federal HealthCare.gov exchange portal. After receiving more than $300 million dollars in federal grants, the state struggled to sign up private insurance enrollees through their own online portal, Cover Oregon. Due to these difficulties and the projected costs of fixing the exchange, a technological advisory committee recommended to Oregon’s exchange board on Thursday that the state transition to using the federal exchange, rather than attempt to fix its existing exchange. Today, state officials approved the advisory board’s recommendation. Examining the cost projections between the two options, state officials...

Millions of Americans fall into the 'coverage gap' where they do not get Medicaid, but are too poor to qualify for federal subsidies on the new insurance exchanges.

The Illinois Medicaid program paid an estimated $12 million for medical services for people listed as deceased in other state records, according to an internal state government memo. The memo dated Friday, which The Associated Press obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, says the state auditor compared clients enrolled in the Medicaid database with state death records dating back to 1970. Auditors identified overpayments for services to roughly 2,900 people after the date of their deaths... Republicans have pressed for the state to use a private company to verify Medicaid eligibility. Maximus Health Services was hired to scrub...

Republicans “still can’t bring themselves to admit that the Affordable Care Act is working,” President Obama told a news conference on Thursday. He also took aim at states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs:“This does frustrate me—states that have chosen not to expand Medicaid for no other reason than political spite. You got 5 million people who could be having health insurance right now at no cost to these states—zero cost to these states—other than ideological reasons they have chosen not to provide health insurance for their citizens.”But some governors, pointing to President Obama’s own broken promises, simply don't...

Washington state has blown past its targets for signing up new Medicaid participants under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The program’s ranks have grown roughly 25 percent in the past six months, helping fulfill one of the act’s key goals to provide health care to nearly all Americans. But with enrollment success comes the challenge of serving more people in a $10 billion program that’s already stretched thin in places. Some of the new enrollees haven’t seen a doctor in years and need help navigating the health-care morass. Medicaid patients already struggle to get care in parts of the state...

Four years after Obamacare became law, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is notifying Medicare providers and suppliers of new fingerprint-based background checks. Eventually, all individuals who hold a five percent or greater stake in a Medicare supplier or provider that is categorized as "high risk" will be subject to the requirement. The provision is part of the Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP Program Integrity Provisions (Title E) of the Affordable Care Act, and gives the HHS secretary broad discretion in applying the background check requirements depending on the potential for abuse, fraud, and/or waste. The new requirements are...