State Keeps Pressing for Waiver to Change Medicaid, but Success Is Unlikely

[white cloud]

Just a few months ago, Gov. Rick Perry led a group of Texas lawmakers who were threatening to drop out of Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for the poor. A state analysis showing that Texas would lose billions of dollars in financing put an end to talk of opting out.

The Texas Tribune
State Keeps Pressing for Waiver to Change Medicaid, but Success Is Unlikely
By EMILY RAMSHAW and MARILYN WERBER SERAFINI
Published: February 17, 2011
Recommend
Twitter
Sign In to E-Mail

Print

Single Page


Reprints

Share
Close LinkedinDiggMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink Just a few months ago, Gov. Rick Perry led a group of Texas lawmakers who were threatening to drop out of Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for the poor. A state analysis showing that Texas would lose billions of dollars in financing put an end to talk of opting out.


Expanded coverage of Texas is produced by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit news organization. To join the conversation about this article, go to texastribune.org.
Now, the debate has shifted, as Texas and other struggling states ask Washington for permission to operate the program as they see fit. Their approach — finding savings by curbing mandatory benefits or limiting eligibility among Medicaid populations — is unlikely to be approved by the Obama administration, which is intent on expanding Medicaid, not shrinking it. And while pressing for a waiver is a far cry from threatening to drop out, it may have the same result: fueling the fire behind Texas’ anti-Washington, state-sovereignty rhetoric.

Texas is hardly the only state pursuing this course; governors across the country are preparing to flood the Department of Health and Human Services with waiver requests. “The feds hold all the power and all the cards here,” said Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, a Republican. “You can expect a whole lot more of this.”

more>>>>>>>
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/us/18ttwaiver.html?_r=1

[sonias]

1. Success Is Unlikely" - the republican mantra

Always do harm first!

:kick: