Gov. McCrory says North Carolina may be forced to expand Medicaid

[WorseBeforeBetter]

By Karen Garloch
[e-mail]

Posted: Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013

Citing new federal regulations, Gov. Pat McCrory said this week that North Carolina could be forced to expand Medicaid to more low-income people, despite the legislature’s vote earlier this year to reject that option under the Affordable Care Act.

In a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, McCrory said the decision about whether to expand Medicaid is “one of the most difficult issues on the governors’ plates right now.”

“We just got a new (regulation) which might in fact force us to do Medicaid expansion whether we want to or not,” McCrory said. “I’m in a very difficult position on what decision to make.”

McCrory was referring to a federal regulation under the health care overhaul that expands the ability of hospitals to presume that some uninsured patients are likely to qualify for Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled. Hospitals can then bill the state for the care of those patients for up to two months until a final determination is made.

....

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/10/23/4410230/gov-mccrory-says-north-carolina.html#.UmnX9L7D9Mt#storylink=cpy

[bravenak]

1. And so it begins...

Kentucky is making them look like they can't govern.
I hope Alaska does it too. But my governor is evil incarnate and was Palin's right hand man before he took office. I hate him.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

3. That's what I'm thinking.

I think it was a CNN interview in which the KY governor shone and Renee Ellmers (the Southern Sarah Palin) came across as the spiteful witch that she is. Considering NC's insanely high unemployment, it should not be turning away something that could bring thousands of good jobs to this state. Or turning away federal tax dollars that we pay into!

[bravenak]

7. Ellmers looked so stupid in that interview I had to watch it twice so I could sufficiently enjoy it.

She probably got a grip of phone calls and emails. I hope her constituents harassed her good. It's costing jobs and money for her state. That ideology is killing America.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

10. Well, some probably liked it...

particularly the lame "you're so angry!" accusation.

Other crazies in the area don't like her because she's not conservative enough.

But my understanding is that her district is rather sprawling and includes educated suburbanites, and I'm guessing they're not thrilled. Particularly after the stolen AR-15 revelations from the other day. And the "I need my paycheck" bullshit.

[bravenak]

14. Her bullshitting was obvious.

If they keep her, we have to force feed psych drugs to her whole district. Cause they must be having mass delusions.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

15. Send some Valium up my way.

Just for fun.

Yeah, there was ZERO substance to anything she said during that interview. "Monstrosity!" "Disaster!" Accusing the KY governor of being dishonest. I'm amazed she didn't pull the bullshit "bless his heart."

[bravenak]

16. LOL!!

"Bless his heart!" I love when they use that.
The governor of Kentucky is a good, smart man who cares about his state and the people in it. He is working on jobs and the economy and trying to do what he can about poverty. Her pretending that he was not honest made me want to smack her through the tv. She is the opposite of him.

[BlueStreak]

30. More Ohio and Arizona than Kentucky

KY has a Dem Governor, so he is easy for the right wing to dismiss.

When these famously right-wing governors (Brewer and Kasich) have very publicly joined the program, it really raises the question who other Republicans hate their own citizens so much.

Really, what is their argument?

I know what Indiana's argument is. They have a system now where they funnel the Medicaid money into private hands. Follow that money and I have no doubt that you will find loads of graft. Is it Republican organized crime that is behind the other Governors that have refused to expand Medicaid?

[bravenak]

34. Well, Brewer did tell them she needed her Medicaid money, right.

I think they will try to dismiss her and she'll sneak a surprisingly good exchange by them.
I'm sure the republicans are a part of organized crime, like Nucky Thompson, he was definitely a republican.
The federal exchange will be working better within a month and the Tea Party meltdown will begin again in earnest.

[BlueStreak]

35. This is an intelligence test

The Federal government pays 100% for 3 years and then 95% and 90% in the out years.

Even at the 90% level, it is an economic no-brainer because the Federal money flows into the state's economy with a strong multiplier, and the state will collect tax revenues much greater than the 10% share they have to put up.

Even if you don't give a shit about the welfare of your state's residents, it is worth doing simply as an economic development project.

[bravenak]

36. They should at least care about the money they'd save from not having ER visits for those who can't

pay.
I'm embarrassed of my governor. He's one of the stupidest men in Alaska. We take money from the federal government for everything else , but not healthcare? I hate him.

[BlueStreak]

38. That's not the Governor's problem, now is it?

That is, unless the Governor is supposed to take responsibility for the welfare and progress of the state he is elected to lead.

[bravenak]

39. I forgot.

He really works for Big Oil and Big Mining.
He's a smug little punk too.

[Thinkingabout]

2. Yep, the money has to be tempting, i just wonder how long OOPS Rick Perry is going to

Hold out, too many uninsured in Texas.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

5. Yep. Plus in NC...

unemployment is 5th or 6th worst in the country. WE NEED JOBS. Especially, good healthcare jobs.

[barbtries]

4. how very unfortunate it would be

and how disturbing to think about the lives that would be saved by such a difficult decision.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

6. I know. Plus the jobs it would bring!

Get more people back to work, more off of food stamps and Medicaid, more paying taxes and into SS and Medicare, more contributing to the overall economy.

This really isn't rocket science.

Oh, crap, bad accident at State Fair.

[barbtries]

8. what happened?

i looked it up. hope they'll be okay.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

11. I know. :-(

Two reportedly critical. Sad.

[NCarolinawoman]

12. Ha!

Couldn't believe how annoyed he looked!

[BlueStreak]

32. Yes, it must be a terribly difficult decision

a) Maintain blind, irrational hatred against everything associated with the black man in the White House

or

b) Provide hundreds of thousands of your citizens basic health care, solve a big part of the indigent case cost shifting problem, add tens of thousands of jobs, while spending none of the state's money -- actually enjoying a net budgetary gain from the taxation on the increased economic activity that results.

Such a difficult decision.

It would be so much easier if the President weren't such a -- you know, not an American.

[NCarolinawoman]

9. I saw that on the news.

Obviously, he was complaining about it to impress that Teabagger conference.

His statement actually gave me hope. I know the big-time hospitals (and we have many),have been coming down hard on the Republicans and McWeasel.

On a sidenote...Did you know that McCrory will be campaigning for Cucinelli?

[WorseBeforeBetter]

13. McCrookie campaigning for the Cooch?

OMG... The Dynamic Duo!

I hope the hospitals are coming down HARD. This is ridiculous, particularly since unemployment is so high and half a million are uninsured!

[Warpy]

17. I see tar and feathers in his future if he doesn't.

NC is a state with incredibly wide income disparity. I know there were still sharecroppers there when I left in the late 60s. I can't think that their economic condition has improved much if they stayed in the rural parts of the state.

Hospitals will likely lead the charge against McCrory if he persists in forcing Republican ideology that doesn't work onto their shoulders.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

18. I hope. But we're stuck with him until 2016.

Hospitals and health organizations are coming down HARD.

KYNect seems to be doing well, and it's smart to compare NC to KY, rather than one of those godless librul blue states.

Rep. Renee Ellmers isn't very convincing during her televised interviews -- she comes across as not too bright, and folks may have buyers' remorse with her. Not too bright? Make that the Southern Sarah Palin, with a less annoying accent.

The N&O has been kicking ass lately and reported that NC's health insurance rates are some of the highest in the nation because we're on the federal exchange, didn't expand Medicaid, and have only two companies offering plans:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10693946 (don't normally link to my own stuff, but there it is...)

I truly hope this blows up on McCrory, in the BIGGEST was possible. Certain areas of the state are doing well, but there's entirely too much poverty, unemployment, etc. in others.

[Warpy]

20. I hope people are having buyer's remorse with the whole bunch of them

What they've been doing to the state is criminal, not political, using it as a laboratory to test out every crackpot theory the Koch boys have for why poor people should either live on air or just shut up and die, already.

I hope it blows up completely.

I don't expect it's been a lot of fun being shown up by the Kentucky governor.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

23. Give 'em enough rope...

as The Daily Show interview illustrated. It truly is a thing of beauty when a brown New Yorker named Aasif Mandvi takes down some voter suppressing good ol' boy, the one with a black best friend. The one who thought he could outsmart TDS:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/10/24/3308737/nc-voting-law-target-of-daily.html (I'm still savoring this...)

I know the DOJ's case is difficult and it needs to prove intent (?), but those words straight from the horse's mouth have got to help our case.

There are GOBs and good ol' girls who embrace Yeltin's views, but I'm hoping the coveted independents reject them. Especially all those *lazy* college students!

Thank you, Rachel Maddow -- Montravius King won his seat on the council, beating GOP voter suppression efforts. (So much for *lazy* blacks, and a *lazy* college student at that!)

Thank you, TDS.

[Warpy]

40. Give them enough rope, they'll hang us all

I think they've been issued more than enough rope. Now that multiple Republicans have been caught on open mikes crowing about preventing Democrats from voting, I think intent will be very easy to prove.

Their old guard kept it zipped, that's why they were so successful at wrecking the New Deal. The ones taking over are feeling very entitled these days and that will be their undoing.

[kestrel91316]

19. Yes, I am quite sure that having to act like the good Christian you

claim to be is going to be VERY difficult.

Suck it up, asshat.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

25. I almost feel like delivering a box of cookies to him today...

big ones with "TDS" and "ACA" lettering in gooey icing.

[AmBlue]

21. Florida's Gov pRick Scott needs a copy of that regulation.

Very interesting. This could make our ReTHug Govs have to think long and hard about turning down Medicaid expansion money.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

27. Didn't Rick Scott agree to participate...

for a couple of years? It's challenging keeping track of the wingnuttery in this state, let alone Floriduh.

Had to Google:

....

Florida would receive $51 billion in federal money over 10 years to cover 1 million uninsured residents if the Legislature would vote to accept the Medicaid expansion money under the Affordable Care Act. Federal money would cover the entire cost of the expansion for the first three years, and then the state would gradually pick up part of the cost until it paid 10 percent. Now low-income Floridians who would be covered by the expansion fall into a gap: They don't qualify for Medicaid, and they make too little money to qualify for subsidies to buy insurance in the new federal marketplace. So they will continue to show up in hospital emergency rooms for expensive charity care, and the costs are paid by taxpayers at public hospitals and by paying patients through higher insurance premiums. Scott said Florida should take the Medicaid expansion money, but unlike Kasich, he hasn't lifted a finger to force the issue.

One of House Speaker Will Weatherford's specious arguments against accepting the Medicaid expansion money is that the federal government can't be trusted to pay its share and could force the state to pay more. Yet the Scott administration wants the federal government to contribute another $2 billion a year to a different program that helps cover health care costs for the poor and uninsured. So it's fine to seek federal money and use it to pay for health care costs for poor Floridians — as long as the money is not tied to President Barack Obama's signature health care reform. That's the kind of pretzel logic that only makes sense in Tallahassee.

In Ohio, the governor's office says on its website that if the state did not accept the Medicaid expansion money, the federal money and the jobs it will create would go to other states. That is exactly what Florida is doing by giving up billions in federal dollars and the thousands of jobs it would help create to provide health care to residents who need it.

....

Buy a snow shovel and move to Ohio, where the Republican governor and legislative leaders are more compassionate and economically pragmatic than their Florida counterparts.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/a-tale-of-two-gop-governors/2148574

Holy shit, $51 BILLION. God, think of the jobs. I don't know about unemployment rates in FL, but NC needs jobs!

[AmBlue]

33. Yeah... half muttered under his breath.

I think he knows the state needs those fed dollars, but he's running from his own words because it's election time. We just had a Dem win a strong red district congressional seat here so the Rs are a bit freaked. Pushing for fed Medicaid monies would make Scott even more reviled-- by his OWN party.

[SaveAmerica]

22. Little Patty is peeing his pants in front of Daddy, don't punish me Daddy!

but I'm going to have to fix the mess I made for myself in my state, please please please don't hit me in my campaign account! Pretty Please!

[WorseBeforeBetter]

24. LOL There's a reason Art Pope and McCrookie were rejected...

in previous elections. They got lucky in 2012 with a shitty economy and high unemployment. Lawd have mercy, 2014 and 2016 cannot get here fast enough!

[JoePhilly]

26. McCory: "Its a tough decision to help poor people" ... there, I fixed it.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

28. There's got to be more to the argument than that...

since many are so brainwashed into thinking the poor are lazy and refuse to work. I know, I live two doors down from one who thinks that way. And she sits in her conservative Baptist church EVERY Sunday.

Reverend Barbour's Moral Mondays approach was smart, and it did resonate with many. But McCrory needs to be slammed on the lost jobs front to get through to others. Not to mention the federal dollars front -- taxes North Carolinians pay will be going to OTHER states, and hospitals will be saddled with more and more charity work. It's unsustainable.

[JoePhilly]

31. The ACA is going to be an example of the government working.

Expanding Medicad will help make the ACA even more successful.

The GOP, and those who control McCory, don't want that.

That's why this is a hard decision for him. He knows it would help show that an effective government can help people. That runs counter to what the GOP says.

But reality is starting to set in. And McCory can't change the reality, unless he takes the money. He's trapped.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

41. Yes, that's it at a very high level -- government being the problem.

(Thanks, Reagan.) And it's something NCers hear over and over re: the DHHS, now headed up by McCrory's darling, the incompetent Aldonna Wos. And staffed by $85K/yr 24-year-olds with little real world experience, let alone healthcare experience.

[SMC22307]

29. K&R

[Gothmog]

37. I would love to see Texas adopt Medicaid expansion

The hospitals are pushing for it and the GOP usually listen to this part of their base