Dems: GOP Medicaid plan is about tax cuts
Tensions emerge during meeting of U.S. governors.
— Tensions WASHINGTON emerged Saturday between Democratic and Republican U.S. governors over a GOPled proposal for a major overhaul to Medicaid, with Democrats saying the changes would take away people’s health coverage to finance tax cuts for the wealthy.
GOP governors intend to present Congress with a plan that they say would give states more flexibility to administer health coverage for poorer residents while protecting states from absorbing the costs of repealing the Affordable Care Act. Democratic governors said Saturday that their Republican counterparts were being dishonest about the effects of their plan.
“They want to spend less money on people’s health care so they can do tax cuts for the rich. They’ve tried to put this camouflage on it that somehow they’re giving governors flexibility. We’ve got plenty of flexibility,” Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said. “This is not what we are asking for.”
While major changes to former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law appear inevitable with Republicans controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, Inslee said there’s still a chance that Democrats can win over GOP lawmakers who have been facing angry constituents at town hall meetings.
“People are madder than hops about this. Look, there’s four Republican members of the House in the state of Washington, and they’re now in the witness-protection program,” Inslee said. “We think churches are going to offer them sanctuary at some point, given how mad people are about this.”
Inslee, whose national profile is rising as Democrats look for new leaders following Hillary Clinton’s loss in November, led a successful legal challenge against President Donald Trump’s ban on travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
The angry rhetoric about health care reform brought a dose of political reality to the nonpartisan National Governors’ Association’s winter meeting, where governors otherwise spend time praising each other and participating in panels on uncontroversial topics, such as early childhood education, a cause that got a boost from actress Jennifer Garner.
The governors will meet with Trump and congressional leaders on Monday.
The GOP governors’ proposal urges Congress to change Medicaid from an open-ended federal entitlement to a program designed by each state within a financial limit. Medicaid provides insurance to more than 70 million low-income Americans, and states had the option of making it available to more people under Obama’s health care overhaul.
Some of the GOP governors behind the reform proposal, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich, opted to expand Medicaid in their states despite pressure from conservatives.
Another GOP governor in a Medicaid expansion state, Doug Ducey of Arizona, said Democrats are failing to acknowledge the shortcomings of the health law and the need for urgent reforms.
“We don’t want to see any citizen have the rug pulled out from underneath them, yet we know Obamacare is failing,” Ducey said. “We’re working hard to put together a plan that will replace Obamacare and actually be an improvement for health care, be a real reform of the Medicaid system.”
It’s not clear whether House Republicans will accept the GOP governors’ proposal.
Many congressional Republicans want to rewrite the basic financial contract for Medicaid, offering flexibility to states in exchange for strict limits on future federal funding.