Senators want governors involved in health talks
By Alexander Bolton - 06/03/17 05:10 PM EDT Republican senators from states that expanded Medicaid enrollment under ObamaCare are pressing for their home-state governors to be involved in the Senate talks over a new healthcare bill.
The senators are skeptical of language in the bill approved by the House that cuts Medicaid by nearly $900 billion and ends the expansion of federal funding to states in 2020.
Republican senators want governors from their home states, who would have to deal directly with a cap on federal spending, to give their conference an analysis of the potential impact.
“There are obviously concerns because we’re impacted big time,” said Sen. Jeff Flake (R), of Arizona, where Medicaid enrollment under ObamaCare has expanded by more than 400,000 people.
“Twenty-eight, 29 percent of the population is on Medicaid, it’s a big number,” said Flake, who is considered to be a Democratic target in next year’s midterm elections.
ObamaCare gave states the option of expanding Medicaid with federal help.
Thirty-one states and Washington, D.C., decided to accept the federal help and expand Medicaid. Sixteen of those states have Republican governors, and would now see federal support for the expansion drop in 2020.
A number of the states, such as Arizona, also backed President Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
Sen. John Hoeven (R) of North Dakota, another state that supported Trump and expanded Medicaid under ObamaCare, has urged his governor, Doug Burgum, to tell congressional negotiators what he and other governors think about proposed reforms.
Hoeven, who served as governor of North Dakota for 10 years, said there’s been “some” input form the states “but we want more and I think we’ll see that.”
“I talked to him. My guy’s working with his staff and then I have been talking about him working with other governors,” he said of Burgum, who was elected last year.
In pushing for the House bill, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), a champion of Medicaid reform, argued the program “works better” when states have more flexibility to run it.
But Flake argues that his state has worked to improve Medicaid, but would now be injured with a quick reduction in federal help.
He talked with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey shortly before the Memorial Day recess to get on the same page.
“One of the concerns initially is that those states that have run the inefficiency already out of it might be penalized,” Flake said.
Burgum and Ducey, who was elected in 2014, came to office after their respective states opted to expand Medicaid. Their allies in Congress say it’s unfair to penalize them for the decisions of previous state administrations.
The issue of Medicaid has long been dicey in the Senate, where 20 Republicans represent states that expanded the program.
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http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/336112-senators-want-governors-involved-in-health-talks