The headline:
"Governors hesitant over Medicare expansion" July 13, 2012
Only problem is the expansion is in Medicaid.
They can't even get the headline right?
WASHINGTON — While the resistance of Republican governors has dominated the debate over the health care law since last month’s Supreme Court decision to uphold it, several Democratic governors are also quietly voicing concerns about a key provision to expand coverage.
That is such a healthy paragraph of agenda-spinning propaganda and truth. Yes, the "debate" -- think divisive, agenda-pushing framing of the issue -- certainly has been dominated by a certain image, while the other side of the "debate" has received less emphasis.
At least seven Democratic governors have been noncommittal about expanding their Medicaid programs, the chief means by which the law would extend coverage to millions of Americans with incomes below or near the poverty line.
I'm sure they issued a correction at some point, but really....
‘‘Unlike the federal government, Montana can’t just print money,’’ Governor Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, said in a statement Wednesday. ‘‘We have a budget surplus, and we’re going to keep it that way.’’
Aaaah, Schweitzer knows about the government's sleight-of-hand deceit regarding our debt. If that power was ever removed from the private central banking cartel's hands Americans would suffer economic pain they couldn't even comprehend.
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The range of state leaders expressing unease suggests that implementing the law could be rough going, with divisions not always breaking along party lines.
Say what?
The topic is likely to factor prominently in this weekend’s meeting of the National Governors Association in Williamsburg, Va. And it has been fueled by a long list of unanswered questions about the choice now before states....
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Let's see if we can get a second opinion on that headline:
"Some governors holding off on health law plans" July 16, 2012
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Millions of uninsured people may have to wait until after Election Day to learn if and how they can get coverage under President Obama’s health care law.
More than two weeks after the Supreme Court gave the green light to Obama’s signature legislative achievement, many governors from both parties said they have not decided how their states will proceed on two parts under their control: an expansion of Medicaid, expected to extend coverage to about 15 million people of low income, and new insurance exchanges, projected to help an additional 15 million purchase private insurance.
Related: Roberts Reversal Led to Obamacare
Also see: No Choice With Obamacare
You are going to have to exchange your doctor (or pay out of pocket).
In some states, such as Colorado, Oklahoma and Wyoming, governors said they are crunching the numbers to determine what’s best for residents. But in other states, including Virginia, Nebraska and Wisconsin, Republican governors said not to expect a decision before the election in November.
If Mitt Romney wins, the argument goes, he’ll try to eliminate the health care overhaul, and the issue will be moot.
‘‘I don’t think I can look the taxpayers of Virginia in the eye and say I’m going to spend a lot of your money building exchanges that four months from now I may not need,’’ Virginia’s GOP governor, Bob McDonnell, said at the National Governors Association meeting....
Also see: Va. AG favors do-nothing health plan
I'm getting to the point where I wish government would do nothing because every time they do something it either $erves certain intere$t$ or does harm.
The Obama administration said last week that people will not be fined for not having insurance in states that turn down the expansion, meaning Obama’s hard-fought overhaul could fall far short of the 30 million or more uninsured he hoped would gain coverage.
Also left to the governors is what to do about the exchanges — Internet-based markets designed to offer one-stop shopping for insurance — that are also part of law. States were to set up their own exchanges, but if they don’t, the federal government will run them instead.
Yeah, and they have done such a great job with the VA.
Also see: Pentagon Prescription
Quick Vet Check
Sunday Globe Special: US Army F***ing With Vets' Minds
They are f***ing with us all in one form or another.
About a half-dozen states have announced plans to forgo the Medicaid expansion and relinquish the massive infusion of federal dollars that would come with it. All have Republican governors, many of whom argued Medicaid is an underfunded entitlement already weighing down their budgets.
Others faulted the Obama administration for failing to provide specifics states need to make informed decisions. That view was echoed in a list of 30 questions about the law the Republican Governors Association sent Obama last week.
The law picks up the entire cost of covering more people for the first three years, and then drops to 90 percent, with states covering the remaining 10 percent. It is a great deal, proponents argue, especially compared with the current Medicaid rates, in which Washington pays as little as half of the costs.
But a few GOP governors at the meeting said they suspected a bait-and-switch in which states would agree to the expansion only to see Congress cut some or all of the funds, leaving governors on the hook and potentially bankrupting budgets.
‘‘At any whim they could just pull the money,’’ Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona said. “So yeah, I’m a little gun-shy.’’
Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who survived a June recall election, said in an interview that governors were grumbling among themselves about the US government’s track record on special education. In 1975, Congress pledged to fund 40 percent of the cost of special education, but routinely has fallen far short of that.
That should be a concern to everyone.
The politics are tricky for governors determining how to proceed.
I'm sick of politics being involved in my health.
About one-third of Americans supported the health care overhaul in an Associated Press-GfK poll conducted in mid-June.
That's not many at all.
But because federal tax dollars cover the Medicaid expansion, states that opt out are essentially consigning their residents to subsidize coverage for those in other states.
Actually, that happens all the time in Washington depending on political power and position. Massachusetts has historically gotten more back than they have paid in taxes, while southern and rural states often receive less.
Both the Medicaid expansion and the exchanges will not begin until 2014, so states technically have some breathing room before making a final decision.
Then why the national lead with.... never mind.
But governors who have agreed to take the expansion accused their colleagues of playing election-year politics at the expense of taxpayers.
Since when has government cared about taxpayers?
‘‘It’s not only irresponsible, it’s disingenuous,’’ Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont said at a news conference organized by Democratic governors.
Yeah, those are the two political parties.
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