If states took advantage of Medicaid changes

[Luddly Neddite]

How The Country Would Look If Every State Took Full Advantage Of Obamacare, In Two Maps

by Tara Culp-Ressler Posted on November 3, 2014 at 10:06 am


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"How The Country Would Look If Every State Took Full Advantage Of Obamacare, In Two Maps"


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Protesters rally for Medicaid expansion outside the Ohio Statehouse


CREDIT: AP Photo/Jay LaPrete


If every state had expanded their Medicaid programs under Obamacare, more than three million people would now have health insurance, according to a large set of data from Enroll America and Civis Analytics analyzed in the New York Times.


That’s how Obamacare was originally intended to work — but in 2012, the Supreme Court ruled the law’s Medicaid expansion to be optional, giving GOP-led states an opening to resist implementing the law. If those states hadn’t gotten the option to refuse this particular provision of the health law, the national uninsurance rate would be two percentage points lower, the new analysis predicts.


That would have dramatically changed the country, and provided an even clearer illustration of Obamacare’s effect on the uninsured (the darker purple indicates a higher rate of uninsured residents):



CREDIT: New York Times


This data is derived from a national model mapping how the law has affected uninsured individuals across the country. Last week, the New York Times analyzed those numbers to determine that, as a whole, health reform has helped make the country more equal by redistributing resources to the low-income people who were previously locked out of the insurance industry.


But, as illustrated by this follow-up investigation, those gains aren’t being felt equally across states. “The uneven Medicaid expansion, largely a result of Republican politicians’ dislike of the program and their concern that their states might get stuck with the costs, has limited the law’s ability to cover poor Americans living in many of the poorest states in the country,” the New York Times concludes.


Previous analyses of the states that have refused to expand Medicaid have found that the people being denied coverage are disproportionately likely to be low-income people of color. The anti-expansion states also had higher uninsurance rates to begin with, and they’re home to people who tend to be poorer and sicker than the residents in other states.

 

[waltky]

Huh?...

Boehner: 'Jobs and Energy Bills' Come First; No Mention of Obamacare
November 5, 2014 -- House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), declaring himself "humbled" by Tuesday night's many Republican wins, says it's not time to celebrate, it's time to pass jobs, energy, tax and regulatory reform bills:

"It's time for government to start getting results and implementing solutions to the challenges facing our country, starting with our still-struggling economy," Boehner said in a statement. "Americans can expect the new Congress to debate and vote soon on the many common-sense jobs and energy bills that passed the Republican-led House in recent years with bipartisan support but were never even brought to a vote by the outgoing Senate majority, as well as solutions offered by Senate Republicans that were denied consideration. "I’ve also put forth a five-point roadmap for harnessing the emerging energy boom in America, resetting our economy and restoring the American Dream for our children and grandchildren. It calls for fixing our tax code, solving our spending problem, reforming our legal system, reforming our regulatory system, and improving our education system."

Boehner said Republicans have set those priorities by listening to their constituents, and he urged Obama to "work with us," rather than launch a "counterattack on the new majority." "This is a time for solutions to get our economy moving again, and we’re eager to get to work,” Boehner said.

Under Boehner's leadership, the House has passed dozens of bills -- more than fifty -- to repeal Obamacare; and as recently as August 8, Boehner was complaining about the Democrats' health care law driving up insurance costs for families and small businesses: "In just two years, Ohioans have now seen their insurance premiums spike by 53 percent on average – it’s simply unconscionable," Boehner said in an Aug. 8 statement. "Every story that piles on further strengthens my resolve to continue fighting to repeal this law and start over with patient-centered reforms that will actually lower health care costs and protect jobs."

Boehner Jobs and Energy Bills Come First No Mention of Obamacare CNS News

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McConnell, Boehner's Priorities Include 'Renewing Our Commitment to Repeal Obamacare'
November 6, 2014 -- Republican leaders say they will "honor the voters' trust" by focusing first on jobs on the economy.

That means debating and voting on bills that passed the House and then stacked up in the Senate. "It also means renewing our commitment to repeal Obamacare, which is hurting the job market along with Americans’ health care," House Speaker John Boehner and presumed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote in an op-ed in Thursday's Wall Street Journal. Boehner and McConnell did not say they would repeal Obamacare; they simply renewed their "commitment" to do so.

Moreover, Boehner and McConnell indicated they will take a piecemeal approach to Obamacare, rather than outright repeal. Among the bills they intend to bring up, they specifically mentioned the Hire More Heroes Act, which would tweak Obamacare in a way that encourages employers to hire more veterans. They also mentioned a proposal to restore the traditional 40-hour definition of full-time employment. House Republicans previously have identified the "worst parts of Obamacare" as the tax on medical devices and the arbitrary definition of full-time work as 30 hours, instead of 40.

In the past two years, the House has passed dozens of bills -- 54 by most counts -- to either repeal, defund, delay or tweak all or parts of The Affordable Care Act. Most recently, on Sept. 18, the House passed the Jobs for America Act (H.R. 4), which would have restored the traditional 40-hour work week, scrapped the medical device tax, and encouraged the hiring of veterans who are covered by other government health care plans. Boehner and McConnell said the legislation they intend to pass will not "single-handedly turn around the economy," but they called their plan "a sensible and obvious first step."

The two leaders promised not to repeat the mistakes of Democrats, who tried to "reshape large chunks of the nation's economy with massive bills that few Americans have read and fewer understand." They promised that congressional committees would "conduct meaningful oversight of federal agencies" as well as write and debate bills; and they said Democrats, soon to be in the minority, will be given the opportunity to "participate in the process of governing." Boehner and McConnell listed the following "priorities" in the 114th Congress. (Immigration reform is never mentioned in the op-ed.)

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