Governors meet in D.C., will press Trump on repeal of Obamacare
Concern growing about Medicaid
WASHINGTON — Governors from across the nation headed for Washington, D.C., Friday, desperate to find out how President Donald Trump and a Republican Congress plan to replace Obamacare.
More than 11 million adults in 31 states — many with Republican governors — are covered under the sweeping Medicaid expansion allowed under the Affordable Care Act.
Governors on their way to the National Governors Association meetings, which began Friday and run through Monday, said they’ll raise the issue with Trump and members of Congress who are promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich, who has called repealing the Medicaid expansion “a very, very bad idea,” was to have a private meeting with the president on Friday.
Kasich will participate in talks at the meetings on “health care reform and finding a responsible path forward,” said Kasich’s spokeswoman, Emmalee Kalmbach.
He’s among a group of Republican governors seeking a highly elusive Obamacare replacement. Their influence is growing with Congressional Republicans unable to find consensus on the plan and facing protests back home over plans to repeal the health care law.
The governors are especially worried about what will happen to Medicaid, the health care program primarily for low-income Americans. Even conservative Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said people who have received coverage should not lose it.
Brownback said that at the meetings, “Obamacare repeal and replace is going to be the top discussion. The governors are going to be at the tip of the spear on that. You’ve got to do it in such a way that you are repealing, but you’re not kicking people off.”
How to handle Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid has become a puzzle for Republicans in Congress, who have vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act but are struggling to find a replacement.
All Medicaid costs for newly eligible recipients were funded by the federal government for the past three years. Trump and congressional Republicans want to change all that, including the funding formula for Medicaid. Governors worry about what it means for their states.
“It’s pretty clear the governors would like a seat at the table,” said Jim Hodges, a Democrat and former governor of South Carolina. “… With Medicaid, the money is spent and the programs are administered at the state level.”
Democrats, as well as some Republican governors, such as Kasich and Michigan’s Rick Snyder, are urging Trump to keep the Medicaid expansion aspect of the Affordable Care Act. But Kentucky Republican Gov. Matt Bevin urged repeal of Obamacare “in its entirety.”