Lines Are Drawn Over Opting Out of Medicaid Plan

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

Lines Are Drawn Over Opting Out of Medicaid Plan

By ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: July 12, 2012

MIAMI — In the weeks since the Supreme Court ruled that states could opt out of a plan to vastly expand Medicaid under President Obama’s health care law, several Republican governors have vowed to do just that, attacking the expansion as a budget-busting federal power grab.

But it may not be so easy. A battle is brewing here in Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott took to national television soon after the ruling to announce that he would reject the expansion. Advocates for the poor and some players in the health care industry — especially hospitals, a powerful political lobby — intend to push back.

Hospital associations around the country have already signed off on cuts to reimbursement rates under the health care law on the assumption that the new paying customers they would gain, partly through the Medicaid expansion, would more than cover their losses.

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Given Florida’s size — it is the fourth most populous state in the nation, and more than 20 percent of its 19 million residents lack health insurance — the implications for Mr. Obama’s goal of insuring most Americans are significant. And Florida’s importance as one of the biggest battleground states in the presidential race adds potency to Mr. Scott’s clash with the Obama administration. Supporters of the law here have hurried to paint the Medicaid expansion as crucial not just morally, but economically.

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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/health/policy/in-florida-a-fight-brews-over-governors-vow-to-opt-out-of-medicaid-expansion.html

[NYC_SKP]

1. The Opt-Out Option: How to Split the Republican Base in Red States like Florida....

Place a Poison Pill in the ACA; an option for ConservaGovernors to opt out of Medicaid expansion which could, if they take the bait, put the spotlight squarely on them and on the benefits to millions that they'd rather withhold.

I like it. Let them draw their line. They'll find more of their base on the other side of that line than on their own.

[flamingdem]

2. Let's hope the public gets how much they stand to lose! nt

[greymattermom]

3. taxes going to blue states for a change?

So those in red states whose governors opt out will now pay for health care in blue states? Isn't it about time that some federal money started to flow from red to blue?