The White House says Mr. Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget proposal will offer that 100 percent match and gradual phasedown to any state “no matter when the state takes up the option”. It’s part of his tradition of traveling the country the day after the State of the Union address.
Advertisement
John Bel Edwards (D) has signed an executive order to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, according to report from The New York Times.
The president will give a speech Thursday at the historic McKinley High School, which is a landmark in Louisiana history.
Without intervention from the USDA or the state social services agency, 31,000 people could have lost their food stamps with the start of the new year, according to Edwards’ transition office.
“I’m going to thank him for coming to Louisiana and ask him to work with us as it relates to the Medicaid expansion, but also with our many other needs”, Edwards said. He and Republican members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation want the health care law repealed.
A number of Republican-run states have accepted the Medicaid expansion in exchange for federal waivers that allow them to impose slightly different rules on Medicaid beneficiaries, including increased cost-sharing. “This is not even a close call”, Edwards said. Nebraska lawmakers are expected to try anew this year to get a Medicaid expansion bill through a legislature that rejected similar measures three times in as many years. Jindal argued that it was too costly for the state and was an inappropriate growth of government spending.
“We do not want to continue to send our federal tax dollars to Washington to then be given to 30 other states to help their people who need access to quality health care while ours go without”, Edwards said.
Advertisement
However, Edwards’ efforts have been met with some opposition, as at least one state legislator-Republican Rep. Alan Seabaugh-said Monday he intends to block the Medicaid expansion plan. It covers adults making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, about $33,400 for a family of four.
