GOP Hopping On Medicaid Expansion Bandwagon

"Pennsylvania's Republican Governor Flip Flops On Medicaid Expansion"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/pennsylvanias-republican-gov-corbett.html

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"Republicans Finally Admit Why They Hate Obamacare"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/06/republicans-finally-admit-why-they-hate.html

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GOP increasingly hopping on Medicaid expansion bandwagon... "The decision has significant impact for Pennsylvania residents: By saying yes to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, as many as 600,000 low-income state residents would gain subsidies to purchase health coverage. (According to Gallup, about 10% of state residents are currently uninsured.) And it’s another signal that GOP governors, who’ve resisted the ACA’s coverage expansion for a mix of political and policy reasons, are steadily coming around to the idea. Why? More federal funds and lower rates of uninsurance, for starters."Dan Diamond in Forbes.

...and shying away from Obamacare repeal. "Heading into the first congressional election since millions of Americans gained coverage under the health law, many Republican candidates are taking a more nuanced approach to how they criticize the law. Rather than just calling for repeal, they are following Ayres’ recommendations to focus on arguments about how the law is hurting consumers, government budgets or the economy. And while political ads on television are still common, the number of new ads about the law has declined since spring when the administration rebounded from the troubled launch of healthcare.gov." Phil Galewitz in Kaiser Health News.

ACA will benefit more small businesses in the fall. "Three more state-run SHOP exchanges are slated to open, and the federal government will unveil exchanges for the 32 states that chose not to run their own. SHOP exchanges were supposed to open nationwide on Oct. 1, the same day as exchanges offering health insurance for individuals. But the Obama administration postponed the SHOP launch, citing the need to fix serious technical problems with the exchanges for individuals....Also, insurance companies encouraged business owners to renew their plans before the October 2013 deadline to avoid having to sign up for a new policy during the first year of the controversial ACA rollout." Christine Vestal in Pew Stateline.