GOP health plan draws mix of reactions from governors
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — U.S. governors responded largely along partisan lines Thursday to the latest Republican health care overhaul, although the plan’s long-term rollback in Medicaid funding remains a concern among many from both parties.
Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada said he wants to protect people who were covered through the expansion of Medicaid in his state and ensure that costs are not shifted to the states. He also is concerned about the stability of insurance markets for people who don’t have employer-sponsored care and must buy their own policies.
“The president promised us that everybody was going to get coverage, it would cost less, and we’d get better results,” said Virginia Gov. Terry Mcauliffe, a Democrat who is chairman of the National Governors Association, which is meeting this week in Providence. “This plan that they just put out doesn’t do any of that.”
Lower-income people who don’t qualify for the program often go uninsured, showing up at emergency rooms for urgent treatment. Those costs often get passed along to the state.
GOP Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky said the new bill represents progress over an earlier version in the Senate and one that previously passed the House. He said it puts more emphasis on state control and flexibility to design health care programs.
Bevin has been a strident opponent of the Affordable Care Act, calling it an “unmitigated disaster” in Kentucky because of higher premiums for some consumers and increased costs for taxpayers. Yet seen through another lens, Kentucky has been one of the states to benefit most from the federal health care law, thanks mostly to expanded Medicaid that was pushed by the previous governor, a Democrat.
Under the expansion, 400,000 Kentucky residents gained medical coverage, helping the state’s uninsured rate fall from 20 percent to 7.5 percent in just two years.