- Trump's Health Plan Would Convert Medicaid to Block Grants, Aide Says New York Times by Robert Pear—President Trump's plan to replace the Affordable Care Act will propose giving each state a fixed amount of federal money in the form of a block grant to provide health care to low-income people on Medicaid, a top adviser to Mr. Trump said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. A block grant would be a radical change. Since its creation in 1965, Medicaid has been an open-ended entitlement. If more people become eligible because of a recession, or if costs go up because of the use of expensive new medicines, states receive more federal money.
- GOP Governors Who Turned Down Medicaid Money Have Hands Out AP by Thomas Beaumont—Republican governors who turned down billions in federal dollars from an expansion of Medicaid under President Barack Obama's health care law now have their hands out in hopes the GOP Congress comes up with a new formula to provide insurance for low-income Americans. The other GOP governors who agreed to expand state-run services in exchange for federal help— more than a dozen out of the 31 states—are adamant that Congress maintain the financing that has allowed them to add millions of low-income people to the health insurance rolls. These two groups of Republicans embody the difficulty the emboldened GOP congressional majorities face: Make good on their promises to repeal the 2010 health care law while preserving popular provisions.
- Why GOP Governors Like Medicaid Under Obamacare. Hint: $ CNN by Tami Luhby—Some Republican governors who have expanded Medicaid, along with their Democratic peers, don't want Congress to kill the provision that has allowed 11.3 million low-income adults nationwide to gain health care coverage. Several GOP governors met with the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday to discuss the future of Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Also, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has asked all governors to submit the changes they'd like made to Medicaid and Obamacare.
