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North Carolina governor weighing Medicaid expansion
By Reid Wilson October 31
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) says he will consider a plan to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, setting off what could be another tense fight with the legislature.
“I’m also trying to figure out what to do with Medicaid and whether to expand that or not, because the feds are offering all this money, and yet I’ve got to be concerned with the bureaucracy that could be grown because of that,” McCrory said at the Raleigh country club, where he addressed a group of chief executives, the Associated Press reported.
The money is a big factor: With the federal government promising to cover 100 percent of expansion costs through 2016 and 90 percent afterward, refusing the expansion could cost the state $51 billion in federal funds.
....
But unlike some governors, who were able to expand Medicaid unilaterally through executive actions, McCrory will have to go through the legislature. He signed a measure last year prohibiting the state from expanding Medicaid without legislative consent.
....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/10/31/north-carolina-governor-weighing-medicaid-expansion/
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) says he will consider a plan to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, setting off what could be another tense fight with the legislature.
“I’m also trying to figure out what to do with Medicaid and whether to expand that or not, because the feds are offering all this money, and yet I’ve got to be concerned with the bureaucracy that could be grown because of that,” McCrory said at the Raleigh country club, where he addressed a group of chief executives, the Associated Press reported.
The money is a big factor: With the federal government promising to cover 100 percent of expansion costs through 2016 and 90 percent afterward, refusing the expansion could cost the state $51 billion in federal funds.
....
But unlike some governors, who were able to expand Medicaid unilaterally through executive actions, McCrory will have to go through the legislature. He signed a measure last year prohibiting the state from expanding Medicaid without legislative consent.
....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/10/31/north-carolina-governor-weighing-medicaid-expansion/
At a Raleigh country club... naturally.
Medicaid expansion? Real conservative bosses still offer little hope
The talk about Medicaid expansion for North Carolina in 2015 from political leaders without much power to do anything about it continues. Gov. McCrory and his HHS Secretary keep talking about expansion as does, rather amusingly, lame duck Speaker/U.S. Senate candidate Thom Tillis. Obviously, expansion would be a terrific thing and is horrifically overdue as the current absurd obstructionism is literally costing thousands of lives per year — all in the name of nothing but conservative ideology.
Sadly, however, neither of these stances by McCrory or Tillis will amount to a hill of beans come next legislative session unless the real conservative bosses in North Carolina politics give their assent. Those two bosses, of course, would be Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and the most important conservative power broker in state politics, Art Pope. After all, the General Assembly has already passed a law to prevent McCrory from doing the deed without their approval and, for all we know, Tillis could well be reduced to trolling the halls of the General Assembly next year as a lobbyist or McCrory lackey.
Meanwhile, there are few if any positive signals from Berger and Pope to be found. Berger says he’s still opposed and Pope…well, his hirelings continue to spout mean-spirited nonsense and gibberish on the subject.
Of course, all of this could change. The powers-that-be in the health care industry want expansion and understand the tremendous good it would do — both for people and in need and, perhaps even more importantly from the corporate perspective, their profits. Add to this the fact that conservative majorities in the General Assembly could be slightly smaller next year and there’s certainly reason to hope that the politics on the issue will continue to improve.
....
More: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2014/10/31/medicaid-expansion-real-conservative-bosses-still-offer-little-hope/#sthash.Ptd4GqDZ.dpuf
The talk about Medicaid expansion for North Carolina in 2015 from political leaders without much power to do anything about it continues. Gov. McCrory and his HHS Secretary keep talking about expansion as does, rather amusingly, lame duck Speaker/U.S. Senate candidate Thom Tillis. Obviously, expansion would be a terrific thing and is horrifically overdue as the current absurd obstructionism is literally costing thousands of lives per year — all in the name of nothing but conservative ideology.
Sadly, however, neither of these stances by McCrory or Tillis will amount to a hill of beans come next legislative session unless the real conservative bosses in North Carolina politics give their assent. Those two bosses, of course, would be Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and the most important conservative power broker in state politics, Art Pope. After all, the General Assembly has already passed a law to prevent McCrory from doing the deed without their approval and, for all we know, Tillis could well be reduced to trolling the halls of the General Assembly next year as a lobbyist or McCrory lackey.
Meanwhile, there are few if any positive signals from Berger and Pope to be found. Berger says he’s still opposed and Pope…well, his hirelings continue to spout mean-spirited nonsense and gibberish on the subject.
Of course, all of this could change. The powers-that-be in the health care industry want expansion and understand the tremendous good it would do — both for people and in need and, perhaps even more importantly from the corporate perspective, their profits. Add to this the fact that conservative majorities in the General Assembly could be slightly smaller next year and there’s certainly reason to hope that the politics on the issue will continue to improve.
....
More: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2014/10/31/medicaid-expansion-real-conservative-bosses-still-offer-little-hope/#sthash.Ptd4GqDZ.dpuf
