Alabama’s Republican governor says he is considering expanding Medicaid under ObamaCare in his state. “We are looking at that,” Gov. Robert Bentley said Thursday, according to The Associated Press. “We have not made a final decision on that yet, exactly how that would work.” Bentley indicated that expanding Medicaid, the government health insurance program for […]
Category: State Healthcare
Alaska Lawmakers To Sue Governor Over Medicaid Expansion
The fight over Medicaid expansion in Alaska has reached a point of no return. The lawfare begins, as the Alaskan Supreme Court refused to block Gov. Bill Walker’s executive action to expand the program and bypass the state legislature who refused to do so. In July, Walker, an independent, said he could not wait any longer to convince state […]
Calif. ObamaCare Exchange Caps Patient Drug Costs
California’s ObamaCare exchange is announcing a cap on patients’ costs for high-priced specialty drugs, the first state in the country to do so. The announcement, which comes after a unanimous vote by the exchange’s board Thursday, would cap the cost for most enrollees on the insurance exchange at $250 per prescription per month. Under the […]
Feds Offer Florida Partial Payment in ObamaCare Spat
The Obama administration on Thursday agreed to give Florida some but not all of its requested federal funds for hospitals, the latest move in a fight over ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion. Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) last month sued the Obama administration over what he called an effort to force his state to expand Medicaid under […]
States’ Rights: Nullification Spreading As Minnesota Invalidates FDA Restrictions
When Minnesota State Representative Nick Zerwas was 15 years old, he was told he had only months to live. Informed that he wouldn’t be able to get a heart transplant, Zerwas was told by his doctor that he might be saved by a surgical procedure that was still experimental. Said Zerwas: “That was my right […]
Insiders Detail Culture of Secrecy at California’s Obamacare Exchange
Aiden Hill’s introduction to the secretive culture at Covered California came in his first days on the job. He had just been hired to head up the agency’s $120 million call center effort when he emailed a superior April 18, 2013, and got a text message in reply: Please refrain from writing a lot of […]
Audit: Maryland Misallocated $28.4M for Health Exchange
Maryland misallocated $28.4 million in federal money for its flawed health care exchange and should pay the money back, according to a federal audit set to be released Friday. The audit by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services found that Maryland misallocated costs to federal grants instead of the Medicaid […]
Healthcare for Illegals Pushes California’s Budget to $5.8 Billion Over Inflation
Over the last 15 years, California racked up three small surpluses, two break-evens and 10 huge deficits. “There’s not a lot of money left in the budget,” said Gov. Jerry Brown regarding the $164.7 billion budget unveiled Friday. “It’s very tight.” The real reason money is tight is Brown and the Democratic legislature increased spending […]
Vermont’s Giving Up On Single-Payer Health Care Over Ballooning Costs
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is canceling his dream plan to create a single-payer health system in the state, he announced Wednesday. “I am not going to undermine the hope of achieving critically important health care reforms for this state by pushing prematurely for single payer when it is not the right time for Vermont,” Shumlin […]
Another Red State Moves To Expand Medicaid
Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Haslam became the latest red-state governor to approve a twist on Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion Monday. Haslam is supporting a private-option version of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, which was pioneered by Arkansas in 2014. The proposal will have to be approved by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Republican-controlled legislature; […]
Feds Approve Republican Governor’s Lipstick on a Pig Medicaid Expansion
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett’s “Healthy PA Private Coverage Option,” aka Medicaid expansion, has been given the seal of approval by federal regulators at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Pennsylvania becomes the 28th state including the District of Columbia to expand Medicaid. Under Obamacare, the expansion in PA will make all adults between […]
Do Romneycare’s Health Connector Failures Signal ObamaCare Woes?
Massachusetts announced May 5 that it was abandoning its Health Connector website — the centerpiece of “Romneycare” that has been a model for ObamaCare nationally — after eight years of the landmark legislation in the Bay State. Politico.com’s Kyle Cheney reported on May 5 that “Massachusetts has already spent $57 million on a system that never was […]