Posted on 06/30/2012 5:49:24 PM PDT by upchuck
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Republicans in at least four states want to abandon an expansion of Medicaid in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, and more than a dozen other states are considering it in the wake of the Supreme Court decision removing the threat of federal penalties.
...
The states considering whether to withdraw from the expansion include presidential battlegrounds Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Colorado.
"One thing is clear, state legislatures will play a big role in the future of Obamacare," said Republican state Rep. Todd Richardson of Missouri.
For elected officials, the high court decision presented a stark choice: agree to accept an ambitious expansion of Medicaid or leave behind a vast pile of federal money that could provide health care to millions of poor constituents.
The law signed by Obama in 2010 was projected to provide coverage to more than 30 million Americans, reducing by more than half the number of uninsured people. Of those, about 17 million were supposed to be added to Medicaid, the joint federal and state health care program for the poor. The rest were to be covered by a strengthened and subsidized private insurance market.
The federal government agreed to pay the full tab for the Medicaid expansion when it begins in 2014. But after three years, states must pay a gradually increasing share that tops out at 10 percent of the cost. That may not sound like much, but it translates to a commitment of billions of dollars at a time when many local officials are still anxious about the slow economic recovery.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Please allow me to do some truthful, realistic editing to that sentence:
The federal government agreed to pay the full tab force the US taxpayers to pay for the Medicaid expansion when it begins in 2014.
South Carolina
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The AP is spinning out propaganda as fast they can.
The medical industry is freaking out about this.
They were counting heavily on all the new Obama Dollars they would get under the proposed Medicaid expansion.
Add Wisconsin to the list
“Bunnie Gronborg, 64, of Festus, Mo., said she has two sons in their 30s who are single fathers who lost construction jobs and now lack health insurance. She had hoped they could be covered by the Medicaid expansion, and she doesn’t buy the explanation that the state cannot afford it.
“There’s absolutely no reason” to reject the expansion, “except being vindictive and playing political games with people’s actual health care,” Gronborg said.”
Oh yeah, lady, the state of Missouri has tons of money in this economy, no reason whatsoever/sarc
Something tells me that Bamster and his many minions will deem (force) states to expand Medicaid...they cannot have their plan fail!
It’s easy to be cavalier about other people’s money. It just grows on trees, you know.
This is what I am afraid of. The average American has no clue about this. Not a topic of conversation. Americans view freedom and liberty in terms of being able to move about freely. I would bet most don’t Even look at their pay stubs. They will just pony up.
Red States to Bama...”FU BO!”
Indiana should be on the list too.
well they can freely move to Minnesota where they have already taken the federal money, Hubert Horatio Humphrey land where things have been communist for decades
Didn’t Missouri have a referendum on Obamacare in 2010 and voted it down?
There seem to be conflicting stories about that sort of thing. Some say that Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements are inadequate to cover doctors' and hospitals' costs, and that many are refusing those patients, and more are expected to refuse in the future.
I'm not sure what the facts are, but I think emergency care is the only thing a doctor or hospital is required to provide, so they can refuse to take Medicare and Medicaid patients as regular patients.
Maybe someone has the definite facts.
It’s still more Federal money coming toward their industry.
I posted another article from Florida where the medical industry respresentative quoted seems panicked that Scott may turn down the Medicaid expansion.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/2901471/posts?page=8#8
Wonderful! The more states, the better.
Any hospital in the United States that refused to admit a Medicaid or Medicaid patient in medical need (including non-emergency) would find its license suspended immediately.
At the same time all states that don`t accept BO`s commie care should give those deadbeats whining about not getting to use that feeding trough a one way bus ticket to states that do. When things really do fall apart, we can just cut them lose, moochers and all.
Not entirely correct. Hospitals have to treat anyone with a medical emergency. After that, there are categories of hospitals. A hospital where I live recently had it’s designation changed to Critical Access Hospital, or Critical Care Hospital. Not sure which, but it is only required to treat Medicare and I think Medicaid patients for a certain period of time, then the patients are transferred to another category of hospital.
Here, after a certain number of days, the local hospital transfers some patients to a regional hospital. And it was generally believed the move was made to avoid having all the beds filled with older, Medicare patients.
Much of this is state regulated and is not the same nationwide, but doctors can chose what type patients to accept as regular patients, and hospitals have some flexibility after required emergency treatment and a certain period of further care.
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