Medicaid

A coalition of public hospitals has launched a new campaign against cuts to Medicaid that could come as part of a deficit-reduction deal.

At ProtectMedicaid.org, the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (NAPH) argues the low-income health insurance program is essential for a healthy economy.

"Medicaid ensures access to quality healthcare for more than 60 million people … all at a lower per-beneficiary cots than private insurance and Medicare," NAPH writes. 

Hispanics — one of Democrats' key voting blocs — will be the biggest beneficiaries if President Obama's healthcare law is fully implemented, the law's supporters said Wednesday.

Jennifer Ng’andu, director of the Health and Civil Rights Policy Project at the National Council of La Raza, said Hispanics would see the biggest gains in healthcare coverage if the law is fully implemented, meaning every state opts in to the optional Medicaid expansion.

Several Republican governors have said they won't implement the Medicaid expansion, which would cover roughly 15 million people if every state took part. They have also vowed not set up their own insurance exchanges, but the administration has the authority to take over that task in reluctant states.

Implementing the Medicaid expansion in President Obama's healthcare law wouldn't cost the states much money, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Republican governors are under enormous pressure not to expand their Medicaid programs, as conservatives look for any way to undermine the Affordable Care Act now that it has survived the Supreme Court as well as the 2012 election.

Nearly every Republican governor has rejected the expansion, citing the additional costs to state governments that are still recovering from the recession. But according to the new Kaiser analysis, states' additional costs would be small.

Obama has backed some Medicare and Medicaid changes in previous talks, but his allies will likely oppose such proposals now.

Experts at the Center for American Progress said Medicaid cuts would undermine the success of the president's signature healthcare law. 

State Medicaid spending is at near-record lows, thanks mostly to the improving economy, according to data released Thursday.

Most of the increase came from spending due to President Obama’s stimulus, the Congressional Research Service study states.

Administration advises states to expand Medicaid or risk losing federal money.

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Medicaid has shelled out billions in overpayments to certain healthcare facilities in New York, according to a report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The committee, led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), said Medicaid has overpaid state-run facilities for people with developmental disabilities by $15 billion over the past 20 years.

Medicaid's payments just to development facilities in New York "exceeded the entire Medicaid budgets of 14 states," the oversight report says, calling it "inexcusable" that the federal government didn't do more to crack down on the overpayments.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is the latest Republican to say his state won't expand Medicaid under President Obama's healthcare law.

Deal told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he has decided against the expansion, which became voluntary after the Supreme Court's landmark healthcare ruling earlier this summer.

Deal, a former member of Congress, said the Medicaid expansion would simply be too expensive.