Republican Governors: Shhh, Don’t Call Our Obamacare Money Obamacare! by Niki2

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Republican Governors: Shhh, Don’t Call Our Obamacare Money Obamacare!

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Thursday, August 22, 2013 07:46
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Thursday, August 22, 2013 7:40 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

A variety of Republican governors have sought federal funds under Obamacare, many of them to expand Medicaid eligibility for more residents, a centerpiece of the law that the Supreme Court made optional for states last year.

But shhh! Don’t call it Obamacare, they say, for they despise that law.

Gov. Rick Perrym one example, wants to kill Obamacare dead, but Texas health officials are now looking to accept an estimated $100 million available through the health law to care for the elderly and disabled. It's an optional Obamacare program that would allow Texas to claim stepped-up Medicaid funding for the care of people with disabilities.

The so-called Community First Choice program aims to enhance the quality of services available to the disabled and elderly in their homes or communities. Similar approaches have had bipartisan support around the country. About 12,000 Texans are expected to benefit in the first year of the program. ( http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=519287BD-9F82-49B9-9627-C6
3FE5C04C1C

In a Texas Tribune article, the governor’s aides downplay the connection of the funds to Obamacare, and noted that what they’re seeking is not the broader Medicaid expansion to extend eligibility to more low-income residents. But Perry endorsed the bill during the last legislative session which directed the state's Health and Human Services Commission to maximize federal matching funds to improve rates for attendant care.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the agency charged with implementing Senate Bill 7, is the one that sought increased federal funding through Community First Choice, which spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman called "a pretty straightforward process available to all states that provides an increase in the federal match rate for certain services."

“The bottom line is it has nothing to do with Obamacare,” said Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle. ( http://www.texastribune.org/2013/08/20/governors-office-denies-reports
-negoations-obamaca/)

Only it has everything to do with Obamacare. As the Department of Health and Human Services explained last February, the new Community First Choice program was explicitly set up under the Affordable Care Act ("HHS announces new Affordable Care Act options for community-based care", http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2012pres/04/20120426a.html) and offers federal funds so states can pay a higher reimbursement rate to providers of home-based care. The aim was to ratchet back an incentive for ill patients to go to a nursing facility when they can be cared for at home.

Perry is not alone among Republican governors, many of whom want billions of federal funds under the law’s Medicaid expansion, but don’t want to call it Obamacare.

One example is Arizona’s Jan Brewer,

Quote:
who used scorched-earth tactics to compel the reluctant Republicans who lead the state legislature to accept the eligibility expansion under Medicaid. After she won the fight, she insisted she was still against Obamacare and came up with her own name for what she had done.

“While I remain opposed to the Affordable Care Act, it has become increasingly clear to me that the status quo is not an option,” Brewer said. Instead, the governor described the expansion as her own plan. “With my Medicaid Restoration Plan, we can continue providing cost-effective care to these individuals — Arizona’s working poor.” ("Brewer earns big Medicaid win but don’t call it Obamacare", http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/morning_call/2013/06/brewer-earns-b
ig-medicaid-win-but.html?page=all)]

Another example is Florida’s Rick Scott. He initially rejected the Medicaid expansion. But faced with pressure from hospitals, and an enticing offer to insure many of his uninsured residents on the federal government’s tab, Scott buckled and championed the Obamacare provision back in February ( http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/2840
99-rick-scott-accepts-medicaid-expansion-under-obamacare) — only to be thwarted by his Republican-led legislature ( http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2013/07/02/florida-house-r
ejects-medicaid-expansion-outcome-doubt).

Then he returned to criticizing Obamacare, papering over the Medicaid component. There’s nobody that wins in that bill,” Scott told the local News Radio 1620 in June ( http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/gubernatorial/gov-scott-calls-fe
deral-health-law-a-disaster/2125122).

Well, not nobody, he admitted, calling the Medicaid expansion a “compassionate, common sense step forward,” rather then a “white flag of surrender to government-run health care.”

Perry is in good company among Republican governors, many of whom want billions of federal funds under the law’s Medicaid expansion, but don’t want to call it Obamacare.

The Medicaid expansion is a lucrative offer: states are permitted to enroll new residents up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line; Washington will cover the full cost of the new beneficiaries until 2017 and pay 90 percent thereafter.

Other Republican governors who backed the expansion, such as John Kasich of Ohio and Susana Martinez of New Mexico, downplayed its link to the Affordable Care Act when declaring their intentions. But governors like Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania and Mary Fallin of Oklahoma conspicuously stressed Obamacare when announcing they’d turn it down.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of just four Republican governors* to have officially enacted legislation expanding Medicaid, was more forthcoming and didn’t deny that he was embracing a part of Obamacare, albeit reluctantly.

This week, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), also an outspoken Obamacare critic, pulled his request for funds under the law’s Community First Choice program, the same one Perry is considering for his state ("Jindal administration withdraws request for Obamacare money", http://theadvocate.com/home/6845116-125/jindal-administration-withdraw
s-request-for)

You can’t rail against the Affordable Care Act at every opportunity and then clandestinely, selectively apply for different pieces of funding for it,” said Moriba Karamoko, who runs the Louisiana Consumer Healthcare Coalition ( http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/bobby-jindal-withdraws-request-f
or-obamacare-funds-95773.html)

* Those are North Dakota ( http://www.prairiebizmag.com/event/article/id/14278/), Iowa ( http://www.radioiowa.com/2013/06/20/branstad-signs-iowas-response-to-m
edicaid-expansion-audio/), Arizona and New Jersey.

Note: "An official with a prominent national advocacy group noted that Texas isn’t the only resistant state to quietly accept some lower-profile components of the health law. Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Maine and others have already been approved for 2 percentage point increases in their Medicaid fund through a little-known provisions of the health law, the advocate said." ( http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=519287BD-9F82-49B9-9627-C6
3FE5C04C1C)

There's three more: Virginia is working on it ( http://www.roanoke.com/news/obamacare/2161707-12/virginia-medicaid-pan
el-leader-cites-progress-in-overhaul.html), as are Ohio (Gov. John Kasich had endorsed Medicaid expansion earlier this year, but his plan was initially blocked by the GOP-led legislature, now there's possible movement, see Gov. John Kasich had endorsed Medicaid expansion earlier this year, but his plan was initially blocked by the GOP-led legislature) and Michigan (Gov. Rick Snyder has said that he supports the expansion, a bill has already cleared the House and state Senate committee unanimously passed it, per http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130731/POLITICS02/307310095) may yet get there, too.

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Thursday, August 22, 2013 7:46 AM

STORYMARK

Attack, while secretly benefiting from what they blindly attack. Same as it ever was....

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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