GOP governors: We like to think of Medicaid as Medicaid-W and Medicaid-B - WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE - and while we don’t mind if he rescinds the latter from states like New York or California, we feel entitled to the former.
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In order to enact his own conservative vision for health care in Indiana, Pence sought — and was granted — a federal waiver."
And that’s what many Republicans who criticize the ACA as “one size fits all” refuse to admit – the Obama administration was extremely flexible with Republican states that wanted to tinker with Medicaid expansion. About ten such states were granted waivers.
The Obama administration knew partially privatizing Medicaid would make it less cost-effective because of the insertion of a middleman private insurer, but they were willing to be flexible; their paramount concern was expanding access to health care.
And in just about every case, the alternative cost more and covered less than if they had just left it alone and gone with the plain Medicaid expansion. Sigh…
Agree, but the GOP politicos want their cut too.