Current:Home > StocksRed states that have resisted Medicaid expansion are feeling pressure to give up.-DB Wealth Institute B2 Reviews & Ratings
Red states that have resisted Medicaid expansion are feeling pressure to give up.
lotradecoin reliability View Date:2024-12-26 02:16:29
ATLANTA – Just 10 states have not expanded Medicaid – mostly in the South, where Republicans dominate state legislatures. But a decade after the Affordable Care Act made the option available, Medicaid expansion is becoming harder to resist.
In December, North Carolina became the latest state to expand Medicaid. And now, GOP power brokers in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia suggest there might be an opening to join them – eventually.
Over plates of fried chicken and mashed potatoes, Georgia legislators and policymakers – including many Republicans – gathered near the State Capitol to hear from neighboring states that took the plunge.
"It was not a very pleasant journey very early on," North Carolina Republican Rep. Donny Lambeth told the assembled group. "I was one of the few Republicans. My party would not accept it. But I would tell you, you need to be patient and don't give up."
Lambeth says he spent almost a decade trying to convince his colleagues in the GOP-controlled legislature to expand Medicaid. Several times, he almost gave up.
But Lambeth stuck with it, framing his pitch as "closing the coverage gap" instead of "expanding Medicaid" and telling his colleagues the stories he heard from people around the state.
"The tree farmers in Ashe County, the strawberry farmers down east – the thing they all told me is, 'We don't have health insurance, but we have a family farm we're going to lose if we have a catastrophic event," he said.
Lambeth also assured Georgia lawmakers that none of his GOP colleagues lost a primary over their support for expansion.
Now roughly 600,000 low-income North Carolinians are eligible for coverage. Expansion in Georgia would cover roughly 400,000 people.
But for many Republicans, "Medicaid expansion" is still a toxic phrase tied closely to former President Barack Obama, so some GOP-led states have put their own spin on the program.
Republican lawmakers in Georgia are eyeing a model deployed by Arkansas, where Medicaid expansion dollars fund the purchase of private insurance plans.
Cindy Gillespie, the former Arkansas health secretary, says her state's approach infused money into rural communities over the last decade.
"In the surrounding states, you had 58 hospitals close," she told the gathering. "None were in Arkansas."
In rural Georgia, nine hospitals have closed since 2010 and free clinics have had to help fill the void.
"Our patients depend on us for their routine check ups and medications," says nurse Glenda Battle, who volunteers at the Samaritan Clinic in Albany, Ga. "They have high morbidity and mortality rates."
That was from Battle's testimony to a recent Georgia legislative hearing on Medicaid expansion. Attendees packed the committee room and an overflow crowd stretched down the hallway outside.
"Medicaid expansion is an economic agent," Battle told lawmakers. "It will allow struggling hospitals to remain open to serve the uninsured, low-income in their area and keep others employed."
Many Republicans have come to acknowledge these gaps. But the response so far from Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp – a more limited expansion with a work requirement – has enrolled only about 2,300 people since it launched last year.
That's about half a percent of what full Medicaid expansion could cover at a higher cost per person.
But despite some tepid interest from top Republicans in the legislature and cautious optimism from Democrats who have long pushed for expansion, Kemp sued the Biden Administration this month to keep his program going and says he is not interested in full expansion.
"You'll have to talk to the people that are proposing that," Kemp told WABE in January. "I mean, those are not my proposals. People have known what my plan is, so that is what I'm pushing forward on."
On Tuesday, after just a month ago signaling openness to exploring Medicaid expansion this year, top Republicans in the Georgia House unveiled a bill suggesting another session will pass without action.
The bill focuses on reforming hospital regulations – often discussed as a component of a potential deal on Medicaid expansion – that merely sets up another study committee to research the Arkansas model.
Meanwhile, Georgia is leaving billions of federal dollars on the table.
"The numbers show that we're being penny wise and pound foolish if we don't get forward with this," Georgia Republican Sen. Chuck Hufstetler said during the panel of Southern health policymakers in January.
Hufstetler, an anesthesiologist who chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee, noted that Georgia has attracted billions in new investments from companies that make batteries, solar panels and electric vehicles.However, he worries it could become harder to compete for jobs with states like North Carolina that have expanded Medicaid.
"We need workers. We need healthy workers," Hufstetler says. "The number one issue we have in Georgia right now is workers."
For now, a lot of the recent rumblings about Medicaid expansion have been just talk. But as more Republican states sign on, a growing number of lawmakers believe the question is not if, but when.
WABE's Rahul Bali and Jess Mador contributed to this report.
veryGood! (5)
Related
- Head of Theodore Roosevelt National Park departs North Dakota job
- Alex Jones ordered to pay judgment to Sandy Hook families, despite bankruptcy
- Travis Kelce wears Iowa State mascot headgear after losing bet with Chiefs' Brad Gee
- The US is welcomed in the Indo-Pacific region and should do more, ambassador to Japan says
- Don't be fooled by the name and packaging: Fruit snacks are rarely good for you. Here's why.
- Cheryl Burke Says She Wasn't Invited to Dancing With the Stars' Tribute to Late Judge Len Goodman
- Florida man convicted of stealing sports camp tuition funds from hundreds of families
- From Israel, writer Etgar Keret talks about the role of fiction in times of war
- 'Alien: Romulus' movie review: Familiar sci-fi squirms get a sheen of freshness
- California Sen. Laphonza Butler, who replaced Dianne Feinstein, won't seek a full term in 2024
Ranking
- Alabama Supreme Court authorizes third nitrogen gas execution
- They fled Russia's war in Ukraine. Now in Israel, they face another conflict.
- Russian foreign minister dismisses US claims of North Korea supplying munitions to Moscow as rumors
- Major water main break that affected thousands in northern New York repaired
- Beyoncé leads nominations for 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards
- Estonia says damage to Finland pipeline was caused by people, but it’s unclear if it was deliberate
- Starbucks, union file dueling lawsuits over pro-Palestine social media post
- Ukraine displays recovered artifacts it says were stolen by Russians
Recommendation
-
Proposal to allow local police to make arrests near Arizona border with Mexico will appear on ballot
-
Movie Review: Scorsese’s epic ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is sweeping tale of greed, richly told
-
Man fined $50K in Vermont for illegally importing carvings made of sperm whale teeth, walrus tusk
-
Oklahoma attorney general sues to stop US’s first public religious school
-
Anchorage police shoot, kill teenage girl who had knife; 6th police shooting in 3 months
-
Jim Harbaugh popped again for alleged cheating. It's time to drop the self-righteous act.
-
Democrats denounce Gov. Greg Abbott's razor wire along New Mexico-Texas border: 'Stunt' that will result in damage
-
Brazil police conduct searches targeting intelligence agency’s use of tracking software