Fallin In Good Company In Rejecting Medicaid Expansion
Medicaid expansion mainly decided on party lines by governors
by Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Partisan politics is coloring governors’ decisions about whether to expand Medicaid in their states, affecting billions of dollars and thousands of low-income people.
The question of whether they receive Medicaid coverage may have little to do with need, and much to do with the way their states vote in governors’ races, including primaries.
Every Democratic governor has called for accepting larger-than-usual federal subsidies to expand Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor. The only three who failed were blocked by Republican state legislators.
Most of the 30 Republican governors have turned down Medicaid expansion and the federal dollars that would come with it. Some who face potential tea-party challengers in next year’s GOP primaries have rejected advice to broaden the program, which they call a costly federal overreach.