Free Republic

Medicaid enrollment under Obamacare is skyrocketing past expectations, giving some GOP governors who oppose the program’s expansion under the health law an “I told you so” moment. More than 12 million people have signed up for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act since January 2014, and in some states that embraced that piece of the law, enrollment is hundreds of thousands beyond initial projections. Seven states have seen particularly big surges, with their overruns totaling nearly 1.4 million. The federal government is picking up 100 percent of the expansion costs through 2016, and then will gradually cut back to 90...

There's more than a touch of absurdity in the way an industry fee in President Barack Obama's health care law is being passed along to state taxpayers. As Alice in Wonderland might say, a curious tax just got curiouser. The burden to states could mount to $13 billion in less than a decade. The Health Insurance Providers Fee was aimed at insurance companies. The thinking went: Because insurers would gain a windfall of customers, they ought to help pay for the expansion of coverage. Insurers say they have raised prices for individuals and small businesses to cover the new tax....

One of the more bizarre spectacles of U.S. government in the modern age is the sight of political leaders complaining that a public program is actually working. In many states that expanded Medicaid and even some that rejected expansion under the Affordable Care Act, enrollment has significantly exceeded projections. To some political leaders, for some reason, this is supposed to be a bad thing. Some Republican governors are in effect calling it "an 'I told you so' moment". In Michigan, for instance, first-year enrollment was projected at 323,000, but enrollment topped out at 605,000. Illinois expected 199,000, and has ended...

As Alice in Wonderland might say, a curious tax just got curiouser. The burden to states could mount to $13 billion in less than a decade. ... It works like this: State governments pay insurers for the tax. The insurers then pay the tax to the federal government. The federal government then reimburses part of the cost to the states. It may sound absurd, but it's not amusing to state governments, which wind up losing 54 cents for every dollar of the insurance tax. State taxpayers end up the biggest losers, without any added benefit to their state's low-income Medicaid...

Nancy Pelosi is now predicting that Republicans will “rue the day” that the Supreme Court guts Obamacare subsidies for millions in three dozen states. “They’re going to then go out and say we’re going to take subsidies away from people who have health care? No, I don’t think so,” says Pelosi. “It would be really bad news for them.” Meanwhile, if anything, Republicans may be moving away from their previously-stated vow to participate in providing a contingency fix to temporarily keep those millions covered. The Hill reports that GOP Rep. Tom Price, the chairman of the House budget committee and...

California is serving as the national model for President Barack Obama's health care reforms, but that won't continue unless the state does something about its abysmal Medi-Cal reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals caring for the 12 million Californians with Medi-Cal coverage. Gov. Jerry Brown has a golden opportunity to fix the problem Thursday when he unveils his May revised budget plan. But don't hold your breath. It's becoming increasingly clear that the influx of 2.7 million Californians to the Medi-Cal roles is putting a strain on the state's medical system. The low reimbursement rates provide a disincentive for physicians...

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) says a bill will be introduced in the House that will “put a salad bar in every single school in the United States of America.” Speaking at the Religious Action Center’s “Consultation on Conscience” event last month, Ryan told the Washington D.C. audience about efforts that will help “begin to end poverty.” […] “It starts to paint the picture of the kind of system that we want,” Ryan continued. “Now, we have a lot of school districts in Ohio and across the country, 70, 80, 90 percent of the kids in the school will be Medicaid—free...

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...