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A new study this week from RAND Corp. estimates that just 4.1 of the 11.2 million people enrolled in exchanges were previously uninsured. The majority, 7.1 million, had coverage prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Indeed, a higher number of uninsured gained coverage through Medicaid than through the exchanges, according to estimates, despite exchanges being the face of the law’s implementation. Though the study found that a net 16.9 million people have gained coverage since the Affordable Care Act took effect—22.8 million gaining coverage, and 5.9 million losing—the estimates are based on a survey of just 1,589 people. Authors...

New York real estate mogul Donald Trump said Thursday that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) could not prevent funding cuts to entitlement programs if elected president in 2016. “Huckabee is a nice guy but will never be able to bring in the funds so as not to cut Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid,” Trump tweeted. “I will.” Trump, a possible 2016 GOP presidential candidate, also argued Huckabee was stealing his potential campaign ideas. “Huckabee copied me,” Trump wrote. “I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare &...

Americans’ tax burden is already $3 billion heavier because of Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare. By putting more able-bodied, working-age childless adults on Medicaid than Kasich projected, Obamacare expansion is reducing incentives to work and threatening traditional Medicaid recipients’ access to care faster and at greater cost than anticipated. After Kasich expanded Medicaid unilaterally, a state panel approved $2.56 billion in Obamacare spending for the expansion’s first 18 months. The money was meant to last until July, but it ran out in February. Kasich’s Obamacare expansion cost $323 million in March — 84 percent greater than...

(LiveActionNews) — A pamphlet produced by Last Days Ministries entitled, “Abortion Clinics: An Inside Look” contained the testimonies of two former abortion facility workers. One worker who tells her story is Sam Griggs.Griggs talks first about the job interview. Some time ago, Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life activist Abby Johnson wrote about how abortion facilities often tell prospective employees that they will not be assisting in abortions.Johnson said that since “no one grows up wanting to work in an abortion clinic” abortion facilities often promise new employees that they will not deal with the abortion procedure, or the bodies of aborted babies. Johnson describes a...

In 49 states, there are basically two options for public health insurance programs: Medicaid for the very poor, and subsidized private health insurance on the Affordable Care Act's exchanges for everyone else. Minnesota is the exception. Unlike every other state, it has a third option in the middle: MinnesotaCare. Created in the 1990s, MinnesotaCare covers people who earn too much money for Medical Assistance (Minnesota's Medicaid program) but not enough to qualify for MNsure, the state's health insurance exchange.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul split with senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio to vote for a healthcare bill Tuesday night that will add about half a trillion dollars to the national debt over the next several decades.Paul sided with the overwhelming majority of senators and representatives who voted for the bill, in a decision almost certain to come up in the primary race, where he is currently joined by Cruz and Rubio.The “doc-fix” bill solves a recurring problem in the way Medicare payments are made to doctors, extends a children’s health insurance program, and requires higher-income seniors to pay higher...

The Obama administration and Florida are negotiating over a $1 billion Medicaid funding stream. lorida's negotiations with the Obama administration over Medicaid—and by extension, Obamacare's Medicaid expansion—got even more complicated Monday, when Republican Gov. Rick Scott walked back his previous support for expanding the low-income health-insurance program. The Associated Press first reported Scott's change of heart Monday. In a statement, the governor effectively blamed the Obama administration's posturing in the ongoing negotiations over a Medicaid funding stream, the Low-Income Pool, which helps pay for uncompensated care. "Given that the federal government said they would not fund the federal LIP program...

With Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the first major announced presidential candidate, surging in the polls and raking in campaign cash, it was inevitable that the push back would follow. The “Stop Ted Cruz” campaign got off to a roaring start in Salon, a magazine that has always disdained the man from Texas, with a Sunday article by Heather Cox Richardson, a college professor who teaches 19th century American history. Richardson’s indictment against Cruz is a beaut, accusing him of being part of a conspiracy started by the late William F. Buckley and furthered by the late Sen. Barry Goldwater to...

Smoking Worst Health Habit of Those on Medicaid Thirty-six percent of adults whose primary health insurance source is Medicaid say they smoke -- making them 21 percentage points more likely to report the habit than those with employer-based insurance, and 17 points more likely than the overall adult average. Smoking appears to be the main health habit that this group struggles with disproportionately -- they are about as likely as others to exercise frequently and eat healthily.

Healthcare providers can't sue states for keeping Medicaid reimbursements low, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. In a split 5-4 decision, the justices said five private companies serving Idaho Medicaid patients can't ask courts to force the state to pay them higher reimbursements. The case Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center was brought by five private companies providing Medicaid patients with in-home healthcare and other services. The firms said Idaho unfairly kept reimbursement rates at 2006 levels, even though care continued to grow more expensive.....

As people of faith, we believe that each of us has a moral obligation to take care of each other. At one time or another, every one of our fellow human beings has a need that we can help ease. We have an even stronger obligation to help the most vulnerable among us — those whose needs are often the greatest. 4307821 Whitefish Physical Therapy (headache) Instory HHN That obligation means more than making sure people have food and clothing. In today’s world, those basics fall far short of what anyone needs to better their lives, support a family and...

Medicaid, the entitlement program for low-income Americans jointly funded by the state and federal government, represents about 25 percent of state budgets. Federal funding represents more than half (57 percent) of that amount, and that funding is now being threatened by Obamacare. In what seems like déjà-vu all over again, Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is pursuing a lawsuit to prevent this sort of federal coercion. Here’s the scoop: In 2009, the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) offered states stimulus funds if they agreed to a maintenance-of-effort (“MOE”) provision that required them to maintain Medicaid-eligibility standards...

A new poll shows that a majority of Wisconsinites want Gov. Scott Walker to expand Medicaid and to take action to prevent more than 184,000 people from losing health care subsidies, potentially making their health care unaffordable, if the U.S. Supreme Court eliminates subsidies in Wisconsin and 33 other states. The court is expected to render its decision in June. The survey of 1,071 registered voters, commissioned by Citizen Action of Wisconsin, showed that by a margin of by 31 percent — 58 to 27 percent — respondents thought Walker should accept a federally funded expansion of Medicaid, which Walker...

The Party of Science has struck again. Conservatives who are either programmatically or philosophically allergic to the notion that expanding access to Medicaid is tantamount to providing the poor access to health care will be surprised to learn that they are heartless ghouls who may also be complicit in an untold number of negligent homicides. During MondayÂ’s White House press briefing, Press Sec. Josh Earnest reportedly equated the decision made by some governors to decline to expand access to Medicaid in their state under the Affordable Care Act with a lack of concern for the health of their constituents:...

Federal agencies made $125 billion in improper payments last year, including tax credits to people who didn’t qualify, Medicare payments for treatments that might not be necessary and unemployment benefits for people who were actually working, said a government report released Monday. The level of improper payments was a new high after several years of declines. In addition to fraud, the errors included overpayments and underpayments, as well payments made without proper documentation. While the errors were spread among 22 federal agencies, three programs stood out: Medicare, Medicaid and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Together, the three programs accounted for...

As state legislatures throughout America struggle with requirements to balance their state budgets, let us pause to remember that one-quarter of the budget is dictated by Lyndon Baines Johnson, whose damage to state budgets lives on 42 years after his death. As president, LBJ pushed for Medicaid -- free health insurance for poor people. This was a boon to the medical industry, particularly hospitals, doctors, sellers of wheelchairs, and nursing homes. But Medicaid comes at the expense of schools, highways, prisons and others state services because it requires states to pony up some of the money in this federally mandated...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is touting the budgetary benefits of Medicaid expansion under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. The potential Republican presidential contender said Tuesday during a town hall event in Somerville that Medicaid expansion has helped save New Jersey significant money. […] Christie has been a vocal critic of Obama’s signature health care program. But he says expanding Medicaid was the right decision for New Jersey. …

Topeka — Gov. Sam Brownback suggested Wednesday that he might consider proposals to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, provided the Legislature can identify a way to pay for it. "I’ve been pushing that anything we do on Medicaid expansion has to be 100-percent paid for," Brownback said during impromptu remarks to the Kansas Association of Insurance Agents, who met at the Statehouse on Wednesday. Under the federal health law, also known as Obamacare, states are allowed to expand their Medicaid programs to cover all individuals in households with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty level. That's...

Roughly 61,000 Ohioans in Medicaid are expected to lose their coverage this weekend after failing to take steps to renew their health benefits as required, the state’s Medicaid director said Thursday. Those recipients who did not update their household income or other eligibility information as requested are poised to be terminated from the program Saturday. Federal law requires states to “redetermine” annually whether recipients remain eligible for Medicaid. The federal-state program for the poor and disabled provides coverage to nearly one out of every four Ohioans. The process was on hold in Ohio for a year as the federal health...

There is unprecedented demand for physician assistants as insurance payment and the Affordable Care Act encourage a team-based approach to managing the care of patient populations. A snapshot of this trend can be seen in a new report by The Medicus Firm, a national physician recruiter, which said physician assistants (PAs) rose to No. 5 among its top 10 most frequently placed medical care providers in 2014, outstripping several categories of medical doctors. Primary care doctors continue to hold the top three spots with family physicians at No. 1, followed by hospitalist doctors and internists at No. 3. Just a...