Several Republican and Democratic governors said they plan to press Congress to preserve the Medicaid expansion, as a draft Republican plan to replace Obamacare would gut the program.
The National Governors Association, which is holding its winter meeting in Washington this weekend, will meet with President Trump and members of Congress on Monday with healthcare topics among those to be discussed. A backdrop to the meeting is the fate of the Medicaid expansion, which 31 states have adopted and whose future in uncertain as Republicans look to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Leaked draft legislation to replace Obamacare released Friday and dated Feb. 10 would roll back the Medicaid expansion but leave funding for it intact until 2020 when a per-capita cap on federal spending would go into effect.
Both Republican and Democratic governors are expressing a desire to keep the Medicaid expansion in place.
“I want to protect those that have coverage now and maintain that coverage,” said Republican Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval during a reception Friday at the National Press Club.
Sandoval, who supported expansion in his state, said he isn’t opposed to capping federal Medicaid funding per beneficiary but is concerned about the formula that would determine funding.
He added that he is concerned about using old rates, noting that his state has grown.
“We added 300,000 new lives that are on Medicaid now in the state of Nevada,” Sandoval said.
Gov. Bill Walker of Alaska, an independent, is another supporter of expansion. He told the Washington Examiner that about 28,000 Alaskans got coverage.
“I like to see that continue,” Walker said of the expansion coverage. “I have had a number of people contact me who say their lives were saved as a result of that.”
Walker said discussing Medicaid and Obamacare with congressional leadership is on the agenda for the winter meeting, alongside other topics such as infrastructure.
The governors are coming to Washington at an opportune time.
Several published reports also note that a small group of governors is coming to Washington to help Republicans craft legislation for the expansion.
The Columbus Dispatch reported that Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a former Republican presidential candidate, is among the group. Kasich told CNN last week that gutting the Medicaid expansion was a “very, very bad idea.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he plans to release final repeal legislation by early March.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the head of the National Governors Association, noted that the GOP is trying to reconcile campaign rhetoric about repealing Obamacare. McAuliffe himself has tried to expand Medicaid in Virginia multiple times, only to be thwarted by the Republican-controlled state legislature.
“This is the box they have themselves in,” he said.
