Aging

"North Carolina taxpayers could spend more than $10 billion by 2022 to provide medical care for low-income residents of other states while getting nothing in return, a McClatchy Newspapers analysis shows. The Affordable Care Act tried to expand Medicaid to millions of low-income, uninsured adults. But many Republican-led states, including both Carolinas, opted out of the plan championed by President Barack Obama. If the 23 states still rejecting Medicaid expansion stick with that decision, they'll contribute $152 billion over 10 years to states that take the federal money, the analysis shows. North Carolina would be one of the top five contributors."

"As attorney general and now as governor, Gov. Tom Corbett has continually fought against Obamacare. That's why, when states were given the choice to expand Medicaid, an entitlement program, he said no. Expansion would have put 1 in 4 Pennsylvanians on public welfare, which is simply not sustainable for our taxpayers. Obamacare has significantly increased government bureaucracy and served only to drive up costs for families and small businesses. There is a better way to achieve true health care reform for Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvanians deserve more than a Washington, D.C., one-size-fits-all approach. Healthy Pennsylvania is an innovative, Pennsylvania-specific plan to reform Medicaid, protect taxpayers and increase access to quality, affordable health care on the private, commercial market."

"Democratic gubernatorial candidate Donald Berwick has laid out some ambitious goals, among them ending chronic homelessness and eliminating childhood poverty. But his most sweeping proposal arguably the most sweeping proposal of the political season is moving Massachusetts to a single-payer or "Medicare for all" health care system. Eight years after the state became the first in the country to establish near-universal coverage, Berwick is reaching for an even bigger prize sought by liberals: shifting from privately financed care to a system funded by the government."

"Medicaid expansion is nothing new in the commonwealth. The General Assembly has been expanding Medicaid almost every year for decades. What has resulted is an unsustainable Medicaid program that consumes over 20 percent of our state budget, an amount that continues to grow. Studies show that the cost to Virginia taxpayers for low-income, uninsured Virginians not only includes over $1.2 billion in the past decade, but is also responsible for up to 10 percent of their health insurance premiums. Continuing with our current Medicaid system is no longer an option. Further expansion doesn't make sense. What is needed is reform. Everything from the expectations of those in the system, to how services are delivered, to creating a path off Medicaid, needs to be addressed and reformed."

"Last year Idaho lawmakers wisely decided that our state should roll up its sleeves and build its own health insurance exchange rather than defer to the federal exchange. The staterun marketplace has forced insurance companies to compete in a fair way and given 76,000 Idahoans access to affordable coverage. Many received tax credits to help pay for their premiums. Unfortunately, some Idahoans were left out. When they shop for coverage through the exchange, they learn that their incomes are "too low" for them to qualify for help. Meanwhile those with slightly higher incomes receive help with their premiums. Approximately 70,000 Idahoans fall into the "coverage gap." They earn too little to qualify for discounted coverage, but earn too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid."

"A federal waiver critical to the efforts in Massachusetts to pursue universal health-care coverage, rein in cost increases and deploy payment delivery reform is hung up in secret talks between outgoing Gov. Deval Patrick's administration and the Obama administration. In late 2011, when Patrick announced the current $26.7 billion, three-year waiver, he said more than 98 percent of Massachusetts residents were insured and predicted the waiver would help the state tame health-care cost growth. Now, as his time in office winds down and with the state's Medicaid rolls growing, negotiating details of a new waiver represents one of his biggest remaining responsibilities."

"For the past two years, Lynch and other Georgia doctors have received more money for treating Medicaid patients as part of a program created by the Affordable Care Act. Its goal: increase access to primary care services for the poor. The pay bump has enabled some doctors to see greater numbers of people on Medicaid, which doesn't pay enough to cover the actual cost of care. But the reimbursement hike --- fully paid for by the federal government for two years --- is set to end on Dec. 31 unless the state opts to extend the increase with its own money. Six states plan to do that, including Alabama and Mississippi. Like Georgia, both Southern states have refused to expand Medicaid as called for by the health care law. But Georgia leaders have not yet decided whether to continue the pay increase. Maintaining it would cost the state an estimated $70 million annually, state legislators say."

"Fewer benefits, a reduction in the number of plans offered through the state's existing Medicaid program and moving about 59,000 Medicaid recipients into private coverage should produce about $4.5 billion in savings over eight years, Branstetter said. Pennsylvania spends 27 percent of its budget on Medicaid, which costs state taxpayers and the federal government a combined $19 billion annually. Critics of Corbett's Healthy PA plan called attention to the cuts, saying they would harm the health of the most vulnerable people in the state."

"Pennsylvania will become the 27th state to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration announced Thursday, using federal funds to buy private health insurance for about 500,000 low-income residents starting next year. Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, had proposed the plan as an alternative to expanding traditional Medicaid under the health care law, which he opposes. Now that federal officials have signed off, Pennsylvania will join Arkansas and Iowa in using Medicaid funds to buy private coverage for the poor."