North Carolina legislative leaders said that they'd take up Medicaid expansion after the budget. Gov. Roy Cooper (D) vetoed the budget because it did not have expansion in it.
But after overriding the veto in the House last week, the GOP leadership is now making good on its promise - to bring up Medicaid expansion for debate and a vote. Granted, it's not the plan the Democrats wanted. But it's Medicaid expansion, nonetheless.
From the News & Observer:
The key differences between Medicaid expansion that Democrats want and the compromise some Republicans are offering is a work requirement and monthly premium.
The premium would be 2% of a person’s annual income and paid out every month. Participants would be eligible if their income did not exceed 133% of the poverty level, are between 19 and 64 years old, are not already covered by Medicare, are ineligible for the existing Medicaid program in North Carolina, and meet federal citizenship and immigration requirements. The bill would also establish a grant program for rural access to health care.
The Carolina Journal has more details on how the GOP plan differs from the Governor's blanket expansion.
I have spent a lot of time outlining the problems with the Obamacare-induced Medicaid expansion scheme. We can see some of these problems in Ohio, where Gov. John Kasich opposed his Republican legislature and expanded the program.
First, there's the "woodwork effect" - where people "come out of the woodwork" to enroll in a "free" program:
At first, Kasich expected fewer than 300,000 adults to sign up in the first year, and predicted that today the state still would have added fewer than 447,000 able-bodiedadults to its rolls.
All of the predictions at the time proved low. Enrollment broke past Kasich’s seven-year projection in just 10 months, and, as of June 2018, 639,000 people had signed up. One in five Ohioans are now on Medicaid...
Second, the costs are always higher than advocates project:
But the expansion didn’t come without costs. In the first 18 months, Ohio’s Medicaid program ran almost $1.5 billion over budget, and a major insurer has threatened to leave the state. Paramount, which covers some 240,000 Medicaid patients, said Medicaid’s low reimbursement rates cost the insurer some $28.5 million in three months.
Supporters say Ohio proves that Medicaid expansion means more people will have insurance - which is obviously true. When you expand a program at no cost to the customer, you will see more customers use that program.
But, coverage doesn't mean care... and Medicaid proves this.
There will be a debate in October in Henderson. Details are here.
Pete's Prep: Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019
- From the Stanly County Journal: Cheerleaders put on one year probation for displaying a Trump flag at a high school football game.
- The Citizen-Times take a look at the new legislative district maps affecting our local representatives. The new maps will also affect Buncombe County Commissioners' districts.
- Also in the local paper: "A Biltmore Park man is heading a Ponzi scheme that so far has defrauded $10 million from investors who were falsely told they would make money off sales to high-profile media companies like Disney, Apple and others, federal investigators alleged in newly filed court records."
- Also, UFOs are real: "The US Navy has finally acknowledged footage purported to show UFOs hurtling through the air. And while officials said they don't know what the objects are, they're not indulging any hints either. The objects seen in three clips of declassified military footage are "unidentified aerial phenomena," Navy spokesperson Joe Gradisher confirmed to CNN."