Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Health Care Medicaid noise leads to inevitable conclusion — expansion won't pass in Arkansas
Posted by Max Brantley on Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 6:35 AM
This is all theater.
I don't care if former top DHS official Ray Hanley is working to mobilize groups to endorse expanding health coverage of Arkansans. I don't care that the Catholic bishop of Arkansas has written that it's the right thing to do, along with faith leaders of virtually every variety. I don't care that solid academic work from groups like Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families makes clear the benefits to the state economically and in health terms are enormous. I don't care if Arkansas tax money will otherwise benefit New York.
Republican lawmakers dredge up three-year-old audits on relatively minor errors in Medicaid; they quibble over where poverty level qualification for Medicaid should be set; they want to hire an ideological consultant to view Medicaid with alarm; they quibble with the precise budgetary benefit of Medicaid expansion (though they cannot quibble with the overall real-dollar benefit). Pay not attention. It's all a smokescreen. Their game is massive resistance. Delay to defeat.
A solid majority of Republicans DO NOT WANT TO PROVIDE GOVERNMENT HEALTH COVERAGE FOR POOR PEOPLE. If they can kill Medicaid expansion and all the other moving parts of the Affordable Care Act, they can 1) spend more money on defense 2) get a tax cut.
Write it down. Gov. Mike Beebe WILL NOT get 75 votes in the House to approve Medicaid expansion. The Republican-led states that have adopted Medicaid expansion for all the obvious reasons don't labor under such an onerous constitutional requirement for passage of appropriation bills. Even assuming a solid 49 votes from the Democrat/Green caucus, Beebe must turn 26, mostly 'bagger, Republicans to win. Not going to happen
It's sad for Arkansas, but that's the reality. You can kiss $900 million a year in federal health support goodbye. You can kiss goodbye to thousands of direct and related jobs in health care. You can kiss goodbye to better health for working poor and cheaper treatment of medical problems before they worsen.
If people want health care, they can get a job, work hard and pay for it themselves. (Except legislators, for whom taxpayers provide as much as $10,000 a year for family coverage.) The tax cuts Republicans expect from ending government health care will eventually trickle upon us all in the form of great prosperity. Pay no attention to the failure of this premise over the last 10 years. Free beer tomorrow.
Acres of newsprint are going to be devoted to this in the weeks ahead. It's irrelevant.
Score it now.
Greed 1; Welfare of Arkansas 0.
Clip and save. I'll joyfully eat it should I be proven wrong.
(Meanwhile, there is a bit of a rumble about some potential tricky legislative maneuvers around the 75-vote requirement. What I've heard so far is unconvincing as to constitutionality, but Godspeed to the legislative gnomes working on this alternative.)
Speaking of...
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State gets $5.1 million for Medicaid in settlement over adulterated drugs
May 14, 2013Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has announced that Arkansas will get $5.1 million, including federal matching funds, for its Medicaid program as part of the $500 million settlement of a lawsuit against Ranbaxy, a drug manufacturer in India that provided subpar generic drugs. /more/
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The terrible 10 of the 89th Arkansas General Assembly
May 9, 2013They're the worst of the worst. /more/
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How the private option flipped the Medicaid expansion debate
May 2, 2013It took a group of clever and obstinate young Republican legislators who refused to go along with Medicaid expansion but weren't ready to close the door on other ideas. They helped force a crafty veteran Democratic governor who was eager to go forward with expansion to consider alternative approaches. Throw in tireless and creative state health officials who happened to have a cozy relationship with their federal It took a group of clever and obstinate young Republican legislators who refused to go along with Medicaid expansion but weren’t ready to close the door on other ideas. They helped force a crafty veteran Democratic governor who was eager to go forward with expansion to consider alternative approaches. Throw in tireless and creative state health officials who happened to have a cozy relationship with their federal counterparts. Probably some luck. And, among everyone involved, it took a slightly crazy, seemingly unjustified optimism that somehow a solution was possible. /more/
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Obamacare application simplified
April 30, 2013The Washington Post's Wonkblog reports that the feds have developed a simpler application for health coverage under the federal Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. /more/
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Managing Medicaid: A cautionary tale
April 23, 2013It's an appealing notion, managing government-financed health care programs like Medicaid to encourage less expensive types of care and turning it over to the ever-so-efficient private sector to get the job done. /more/
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The costs of rejecting the "private option" and doing nothing
April 14, 2013What happens if the legislature rejects the “private option,” the new policy framework developed by Arkansas Republicans as a possible third way in the expansion question? /more/
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The House takes up Medicaid expansion
April 8, 2013The Arkansas House is now meeting as a committee of the whole to hear the pitch for taking federal Medicaid expansion money, but my moving more people into private health insurance, rather than through a government-overseen program. /more/
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UPDATE: Senate endorses Medicaid expansion
April 5, 2013The Arkansas Senate endorsed Medicaid expansion in Arkansas through a private insurance option. But the vote fell three short of what will be needed to approve an accompanying appropriation bill to spend the money. /more/
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The Thursday night line
April 4, 2013Over to you. Closing out: * ROUND ONE IN THE MEDICAID FIGHT: The Senate meets at 8 a.m. /more/
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Koch organization says no to Obamacare expansion in Arkansas
April 3, 2013The Kochs have spoken. Their Americans for Prosperity chapter in Arkansas has formally announced opposition to the legislature approving the Obamacare-provided expansion of health care coverage under the Medicaid program. /more/
- More »
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