The Affordable Care Act is a health care law that aims to improve our current health care system by increasing access to health coverage for Americans and introducing new protections for people who have health insurance.
They see it as a way that it will help pay for low income people in their states to get health insurance.
Also, it is the government agency responsible for investigating crimes on Indian Reservations in the United States under the Major Crimes Act.
Others hope the November 6 ballot will give Republicans the power to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature law altogether, if the party, which currently controls the House of Representatives, gains control of the White House and the Senate as well.
That phrase, “fed up,” went through our brain again after the Governor’s latest declaration in the “Obamacare” fight, when he proclaimed that Texas will not expand its Medicaid program as called for under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
“It could change the political dynamics so that the ideologues are no longer running the show,” said John Holahan, director of the nonpartisan Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center.
A big enough backlash could also raise hurdles for governors with presidential aspirations in 2016.
Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Rick Scott of Florida and Nikki Haley of South Carolina also are refusing to expand Medicaid.
Taking a hardline stance in the short term may help attract the attention of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who has vowed to repeal the healthcare law, and appeal to large numbers of voters who dislike the law.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, whose state has the most residents without health insurance, said he won’t expand Medicaid.
“we will not be party to socializing healthcare and bankrupting our state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government,” Perry said.
Martin O’Malley of Maryland said in a separate news briefing that he thinks his state will gain a competitive advantage by being early to expand Medicaid and adopt other aspects of the health care law.
With a strained state budget, it’s hard to imagine addressing the uninsured problem in Texas without leveraging federal funds, which will now go to other states that choose to expand their Medicaid program.
In many states, benefits are available to working age parents and pregnant women with incomes well below a federal poverty level of $22,300 a year for a family of four.
The Affordable Care Act would expand coverage to families with incomes of up to about $30,000, aiming to provide health insurance to an additional 16 million people nationwide.
If you have health insurance, you will benefit from steps to stop insurance companies from canceling your coverage if you get sick.
Althoughthe federal government would pay the vast majority of theadditional costs, Montana’s health department estimates the state’sshare would reach $71 million in 2019.
In Texas, that could cover as many as 2 million uninsured residents, according to the Austin based Center for Public Policy Priorities.
“Democratic candidates will undoubtedly use this against Republican incumbents who won’t take the federal money,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
But this raises at least the possiblity that plenty of ordinary rank and file Republicans are far less gung ho than some GOP officials and opinionmakers are about turning away federal money that would expand the ranks of the insured.
But in 2014, Republicans will try to hold on to governor’s seats in more than 20 states including Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Nebraska and Iowa – nearly a year after states that embrace the law reap federal money for healthcare benefits in earnest.
If opponents of the ACA would compromise, we could keep our tax money in Texas – while state Health & Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs estimates the expansion would cost Texas $15.6 billion over 10 years, the federal government would overwhelmingly pay the balance: 100 percent for the first three years, and then gradually dropping to a still substantial 90 percent, for a total of more than $100 billion.
INSURERS MONITORING OUTCOMEThe prospect of losing billions of dollars in Medicaid payments could also anger healthcare and business interests in those states and lead them to campaign against the “rejectionists.
“Large commercial insurer WellPoint Inc (WLP.N) last week said it would buy Medicaid specialist Amerigroup (AGP.N) for $4.5 billion, the latest sign of private sector interest in reaping profits from running government health plans. Amerigroup’s top Medicaid markets include Florida and Texas.Some analysts also point out that governors would turn down benefits funded by taxpayers from other states, while leaving their own residents to pay federal taxes that fund reform elsewhere.Regional income disparities also mean the new Medicaid benefits would be available to more of the population in southern states that are now at the forefront of opposition.In nine states that have decided to opt out of the Medicaid expansion or are considering the idea, about 29 percent of the population below retirement age have incomes that would qualify for new benefits, according to the Urban Institute.Florida is a case in point. One in five Floridians is uninsured. Meanwhile, 30 percent of state residents earn annual incomes that would qualify for a Medicaid expansion that would bring an estimated $4.4 billion per year in new federal money to the state, the Urban Institute says.Numbers like that could spell trouble for the state’s governor, Rick Scott, whose job approval rating stands at 39 percent in a recent Quinnipiac University poll.”.
Indeed, the Texas Hospital Association responded to Perry’s letter with a statement reading: “… without the Medicaid expansion, many will remain uninsured, seeking care in emergency rooms, shifting costs to the privately insured, and increasing uncompensated care to health care providers. With a strained state budget, it’s hard to imagine addressing the uninsured problem in Texas without leveraging federal funds, which will now go to other states that choose to expand their Medicaid program.”.
At a minimum, Democrats will see the healthcare issue as a big plus for them,” said Susan MacManus, political science professor at the University of South Florida.But Scott, a political maverick who has already rejected $2.4 billion in federal funds for rapid rail development, could survive by appealing to the state’s legion of elderly voters worried about the federal budget deficit.”.
Not only would it bring a significantinjection of federal funds to the state, but it would also be aboon to Arkansas hospitals, which are currently treating many poorpeople for free.
There are countervailing arguments including that it would further burden constituents by having to raise taxes, etc.
, because there would be new costs,” said Edmund Haislmaier of the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Jonathan Oberlander at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine agrees: “It depends on how the issue is framed.
As Steve Kornacki writes, opting out of the Medicaid expansion is very tempting to GOP governors, because the “value to an ambitious Tea Party era Republican politician of defying the Obama administration and rejecting money from Washington shouldn’t be underestimated.
The Government of the United States of America is the federal government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that comprise the United States of America, as well as one capitol district, and several other territories.
The exchanges, which can be set up by each state or put together by the federal government, need to be running by the fall of 2013.
Jason Murdoch is a business journalist based in Hobart, Australia. Jason has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Jason spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.
