"The Hard, Central Truth Of Contemporary Conservatism"
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Obamacare: Where's The Train Wreck?"
http://paxonbothhouses.
"The Hard, Central Truth Of Contemporary Conservatism"
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Obamacare: Where's The Train Wreck?"
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Obamacare: Where's The Train Wreck?"
http://paxonbothhouses.
Socialist Super Star Sarah Palin Demands Oil Companies Be Stripped Of $6 Billion
Socialist Super Star Sarah Palin Demands Oil Companies Be Stripped Of $6 Billion
Sarah Palin: "Alaska Feels Impacts Of Climate Change More Than Any Other State"
Over Objections of Legislature, Alaska’s Governor Says He Will Expand Medicaid
WASHINGTON — After failing to persuade his Legislature to expand Medicaid, Gov. Bill Walker of Alaska said Thursday that he planned to unilaterally accept the federal funds available to cover more low-income residents under the program.
Mr. Walker, an independent who took office in December, said in a news conference in Anchorage that he could not wait any longer to offer health coverage to the roughly 42,000 people his administration projects will be eligible under the expansion. Expanding Medicaid — an option for every state under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act — was a campaign priority for Mr. Walker, who couched it as a “common-sense decision” for the state’s economy and for the health of its people.
Mr. Walker said he had sent a letter to the state’s Legislative Budget and Audit Committee on Thursday, giving it a required 45-day notice of his intention to accept the federal expansion funds. The committee can issue a recommendation, but Mr. Walker said he had the authority under state law to proceed even if the committee did not approve.
“This is the final option for me,” he told an audience at the Alaska Native Medical Center that included hospital executives, health care providers and others who had pushed for Medicaid expansion. “We are not going to step away from this opportunity to help fellow Alaskans, period.”
He said that he hoped that newly eligible people could start enrolling in September, and that his administration believed that about 20,000 would sign up over the first year. For every state that decides to expand the program under the health care law, the federal government will cover the full cost through 2016, then gradually lower its share to 90 percent by 2020.
Mr. Walker, a former Republican with a background as a businessman and lawyer, said he sought approval for Medicaid expansion during the regular legislative session and a special session last month. But his bills never made it out of committee. Republican lawmakers expressed concerns about the eventual cost to the state — a theme among opponents of the expansion — and said Alaska’s Medicaid program needed to be overhauled before it grew.
Legislators even included language in the state budget banning Medicaid expansion, but lawyers for the Legislature and for Mr. Walker said it was unconstitutional.
Although 29 other states have expanded Medicaid under President Obama’s health care law, governors have moved ahead without legislative consent in only a few of them, including Kentucky and West Virginia. In both cases, the governors were able to expand the program by executive order because state laws allowed it. Gov. John Kasich of Ohio used a state board that approves budget adjustments to expand Medicaid after his fellow Republicans in the Legislature refused to go along.
Republican lawmakers in Alaska reiterated their concerns about the expansion in a statement, but they did not indicate they would fight it.
“Regardless of federal funding, we cannot afford the Medicaid system we have now,” said Senator Pete Kelly, Republican of Fairbanks. “Our current system is broken. Adding tens of thousands of people to a broken system will do nothing to improve quality of care, access or efficiency.”
Mr. Walker’s health and social services commissioner, Valerie Davidson, said her department had hired a contractor to help redesign the state’s Medicaid program. She added that Mr. Walker would meet with Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the federal health and human services secretary, next week to discuss possible improvements.
Asked whether his move would hurt already-rocky relations with the Legislature, Mr. Walker said he was optimistic. He would, he said, “work on that relationship for the balance of the summer and see where we go next year.”
John Coghill, the Senate majority leader, said expanding Medicaid now gave the state less leverage with the Obama administration in seeking cost-saving changes to the program. He acknowledged, however, that Mr. Walker “has the upper hand in the process.”
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