Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

The willow is too close to the house.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Not all heroes wear capes.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

T R E 4 5 O N

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / And another one (perhaps)

And another one (perhaps)

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Wyoming has been struggling with Medicaid Expansion for the past fifteen months.  The state prepared a waiver application in December 2014 and I thought it was a fairly decent one for a red state:

Overall, this is a fairly straightforward and simple Medicaid waiver.  There will be a significant conversation about benefit restrictions but everything else should go through quickly.  The major stopping point now is approval through the legislature.

The legislature was the show stopper last year. However Wyoming needs to save money.  Medicaid expansion saves states money in a couple of ways.  The biggest short term savings is cost shifting.  States can shift some people and services that they cover with either traditional Medicaid funds (which states pay 40% to 60% of the cost) or state-only funds to paying for those services with 100% Federal money this year and eventually 90% federal money over the long run.  Secondly, state subsidies for charity care and bad debts will decline as more people can pay for care.  Finally, over the long run, the optimistic argument is that Medicaid Expansion can help people who otherwise would have been uninsured avoid medical crisis that would in the future qualify them for disability and Legacy Medicaid.  That argument is the least supported argument.

It looks like the offer of Medicaid expansion is still a one way ratchet and that the number of Republicans who can count to eleven with their shoes on are willing to form coalitions with Democrats to get this passed Tea Partiers in Red States.  That is good news for the long term Medicaid expansion.

Reader Interactions

9Comments

  2. 2.

    Cermet

    Wow – have to fight people to take free money while also, they get to provide sick people with medical care. What a country – not.

  3. 3.

    Punchy

    The major stopping point now is approval through the legislature.

    That’s like saying the only thing stopping me from traveling back in time is a time machine. Soooo close, but lacking the Delorean and 1.21 gigawatts.

  6. 6.

    dedc79

    McCain, shedding crocodile tears on voting to nix Medicaid expansion in the process of repealing the ACA:

    “It’s going to trouble me in the vote,” McCain said. “It does provide me with discomfort. I am very reluctant to take positions counter to the decision made by the governor.”

    So what troubles him is going against the governor of his state, not all the poor people who would lose coverage if repeal actually passed.

  7. 7.

    RaflW

    All this of course flies in the face of Mitch McConnell who is planning to advance a bill to wipe out the Medicaid expansion.

    Obama will of course veto the bill should it ooze its way up Pennsylvania Ave.

    But the fissures between the performance art that has replaced governance in D.C., and states where direct lines can be drawn between elected officials and public suffering continues to grow (particularly low population states where a governor is often pretty accessible).

    I don’t know if the state/national dissonance can be leveraged. But it is interesting to watch.

  9. 9.

    Fake Irishman

    Is Haslam going to try again in Tennessee? I also heard Bentley making noises recently in Alabama, of all places.

    The one-way rachet analogy seems to be a good one so far.

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