Thanks to the 2018 Elections, More States Are Expanding Medicaid
“Even as the Trump administration seeks to slash Medicaid funding, more and more states are buying into the expanded program. In the run-up to the mid-terms, Medicaid expansion was literally on the ballot in four states, and numerous gubernatorial candidates were running with the pledge that they’d expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act if they won. When the dust cleared, the voters of three states—Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah—had passed their ballot initiatives to expand the program. (Montanans voted no on the funding expansion, but had previously voted yes on accepting federal funds in 2016, so the program’s future there is unclear.) New Democratic governors in Wisconsin and Kansas are poised to push for Medicaid expansion. Maine approved expansion by ballot initiative in 2017, but Republican Governor Paul LePage fought the measure. The new Democratic governor, Janet Mills, is now pushing expansion forward. The 2017 Virginia elections that swept so many Democrats into state office also paved the way for Medicaid expansion in that state as of January this year.”