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Some Republican states want to abandon Medicaid expansion
Minnesota, for example, has already begun drawing more federal money to expand its Medicaid program ahead of schedule. Officials in Connecticut, Iowa, Arkansas and elsewhere said they will move forward with plans to raise their Medicaid income eligibility thresholds, citing the chance to cover hundreds of thousands of additional people with the lion's share of the cost coming for the federal government.
In New Mexico, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez has supported increased state money for Medicaid since taking office last year, though she hasn't decided whether to back the federal expansion to 133 percent of the federal poverty level — an amount equivalent to $14,856 annually for an individual or $30,657 for a family of four. The expansion would add 170,000 people to the state's Medicaid rolls, reducing the number of uninsured New Mexico residents by almost 40 percent.
"I think New Mexico would be foolish not to expand its Medicaid program," said state Sen. Dede Feldman, a Democrat, who is chairwoman of a legislative study committee that deals with health care.
Despite the reluctance of some state officials to embrace the Medicaid expansion, history suggests that the federal government's financial carrot can be a powerful incentive. When the federal government offered enhanced payments to expand health coverage for children in the 1990s, all states eventually implemented the program, said Jennifer Tolbert, director of state health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan informational clearinghouse.
Now states have an even higher-stakes offer to expand coverage for adults.
Even in Florida, which took a leading role in fighting the health care overhaul, officials have not ruled out participating, although Gov. Rick Scott said it is unlikely. Other states are biding their time, too.
"The federal government is putting a lot of money on the table," Tolbert said. "It may be difficult for states to walk away from that money while simultaneously leaving their lowest income residents uninsured."
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Associated Press writers Chris Blank in Jefferson City; Jamie Stengle in Dallas; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Miss.; Grant Schulte in Lincoln, Neb.; Charles Wilson in Indianapolis; David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa; Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Ark.; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn.; Barry Massey in Sante Fe, N.M.; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa.; Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Fla.; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
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Why is it a bad thing for American children to have health care when every other industrialized nation has health care for their children?????????????????
It was passed by a Constitutionally elected Congress, signed by a Constitutionally elected President, and upheld by the Supreme Court per their Constitutional authority.
But the anti American GOP economic terrorist pimps for the 1% refuse to accept Democracy at work per our Founders vision??????????
We who pay the lions share of taxes are proud that we can contribute to the American way of life. We believe if some of our taxes can help those less fortunate than ourselves, that it is the right thing to do, and we should do it.
But these greedy, self centered GOP fanatics are any thing but Christain in their words and their actions. They expose a greed that is so callouse, so self serving, that they would rather see hundreds, if not millions, of poor people die, rather than to lift a dollar or two from their taxes, or their pockets. Being so greedy makes me wonder what else they have done to satisfy this terrible greed. Are they crooks, like the bankers and wall street thugs that made poor people out of millions of people in the continuing financial meltdown? Would they lie, cheat, or steal to get more money, or to not spend thier own money? What kind of a person would be so callouse to completly disregard their fellow man's right to life?
Unfortunately this is the kind of people that the GOP leadership are targeting with their lack of empathy, reckless disregard for the poor, aged, and disabled. They attack women, workers, common sence, and totally fail to do their urgent jobs for the American people, to persue political bickering, and stonewalling all needed economic policies to stand against the President of the united States, because he is half black. These GOP leaders have continued to receive huge paychecks during the worst productive 3 1/2 years of Congress, they haven't tried to comporomise even once. They still continue their war on the American public, by deneying us an active government that is working to get people back to work. That alone would solve many of the problems we face today and for years to come.
It has come down to do we allow these greedy cold hearted people take our government from us or do we as a people stand against this movement to serve only the wealthy, and let the disadvantaged just die. Vote Democrat all the way in Novenber to stop these pathetic money grabbers.
The GOP: What an utterly reprehensible group of low-lifes.
Alienating MILLIONS of poor constituents in key battleground swing states?
Hmmm, I wonder which was those voters are going to vote - for the republicans or for their health care?
I know!! Let's claim that they are all "illegal voters" and purge them from the voting rolls!!
Sounds like a plan!!!!!!!!!!
Yep, the nations largest employer, Wal-Mart, has the highest percentage of the working poor that earn so little that they pay no taxes and qualify for food stamps, Medicaid and housing assistance.
What should they do to keep the rich from suffering a 2% tax increase that would reduce our deficits, save Social Security, Medicare, and our local governments???????
Are you suggesting people should work for chinese wages? I know that's the gop's goal.