Free Republic

Kasich’s decision to expand Medicaid under Obamacare—a move that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled was optional and up to state discretion—is a sore subject for fiscal conservatives and led to him being, not just left out of an event held in his backyard, but attacked by several of the event’s speakers, including former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and AFP President Tim Phillips. Obamacare critics do not like how the law allows Medicaid, originally enacted as a safety net to provide health coverage for poor mothers and children, to be expanded to cover able-bodied, working-age adults. Federal funds cover the costs...

<p>Incredible - after the scathing auditors report, they are able to do this - read the excuses given.</p>

The quickest and surest way to make things more expensive for most of us is for someone in our government to attempt to make such things “free” for some. As I noted earlier this year, the largest “charity” in the U.S. is government (which, of course, brags about it!). Americans gave a total of approximately $3.4 billion (about $2.4 billion from individuals) to private charities in 2013. In the same year, Americans received over $600 billion from means-tested (recipients required to be below a certain income level) government programs (housing, food stamps, WIC, Medicaid, and the like). When non means-tested...

Recently, while most of the media obsessed over the antics of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the nation passed a significant milestone. Medicaid, the federal-state program meant to provide a medical safety net for the poor, turned 50. This anniversary was celebrated by progressives as proof that government-run health care really works. Few of these cheerleaders noted, however, that this once modest program has morphed into a budget-busting behemoth most of whose expenditures go to the middle class. They also neglected to mention the difficulties Medicaid patients face accessing care or that they experience worse health outcomes than the uninsured....

The actual rates for Part B (which covers the costs of doctor visits and outpatient care) will be announced in October and take effect Jan. 1. The boost may be 15% for all participants [$105/month to $121] or a whopping 52% for some [$105/month to $159], depending on whether Social Security recipients see a cost-of-living raise for 2016.

Cecile Richards, President of Planned Butcherhood Parenthood, has visited the Obama White House 39 times, which is more than some cabinet members. This current Head of State would never defund the abortion giant because they campaign for the Left and contribute far too many dollars towards pushing the liberal agenda. It’s sick that anyone would willingly defend this organization, but such is the Democrat lifestyle. Now, if states go forward with defunding PP, the Obama administration is threatening them with a potential violation of federal law, and cutting off Medicaid funds. If you go against me, you will pay –...

DERRY, N.H. – It was the last question at Gov. John R. Kasich’s town-hall-style meeting here on Wednesday, and it also was perhaps the bluntest. “Governor Kasich, how do you feel about amnesty for the illegals?” asked a voter near the back of a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall here. Mr. Kasich, an Ohio Republican, started off sounding like a border hawk, saying he wanted to “finish the wall” along the border with Mexico. But when he answered the question at hand, he sounded a far more pragmatic note. “If they’ve been law-abiding, then I think they should stay,” he...

The Obama administration is threatening two states after they made the decision to cut funding to the Planned Parenthood abortion business in the wake of a series of videos exposing how Planned Parenthood sells aborted babies and their body parts. Alabama became the third state to de-fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business in the wake of five videos exposing how the abortion giant sells the body parts of aborted babies for research. The state followed Louisiana, which is revoking a contract with Planned Parenthood using state Medicaid dollars, and New Hampshire, which zapped $650,000 in state taxpayer funding. In Alabama,...

Ms. Dehabey, resettlement coordinator for US Together in Toledo, is also the primary facilitator for their adjustment to the area. The organization has been quietly and steadily resettling refugees in the Toledo area for a little more than a year, the only agency in the Toledo area doing so. The refugee community is a small but growing regional population, Ms. Dehabey said. She has placed 11 families in the Toledo area, including two before US Together opened its Toledo office in May, 2014. ... Ms. Dehabey opens an average of one case a month, she said, though arrivals can be...

During Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, Megyn Kelly of Fox News asked Ohio Gov. John Kasich a question about his decision to accept on behalf of his state an option under the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare) to expand the number of people eligible for Medicaid by increasing the income threshold below which people qualify. Kasich responded that President Ronald Reagan had expanded Medicaid three times and then discussed some of the things Ohio is doing with Medicaid money. “Everybody has a right to their God-given purpose,” he said.Snip Megyn Kelly: Governor Kasich, you chose to expand...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (R) Thursday terminated the state’s Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood after the legitimacy of using any taxpayer dollars to fund the abortion provider was once again called into question following the release of several videos describing its harvest and sale of aborted baby organs and body parts. “The deplorable practices at Planned Parenthood have been exposed to Americans, and I have decided to stop any association with the organization in Alabama,” said Governor Bentley. “As a doctor and Alabama’s Governor, the issue of human life, from conception to birth and beyond, is extremely...

President Obama argued “these programs aren’t in crisis” while discussing Medicare and Medicaid during his Weekly Address on Saturday. (transcript excerpt) "If one of the best measures of a country is how it treats its more vulnerable citizens — seniors, the poor, the sick — then America has a lot to be proud of. Think about it. Before Social Security, too many seniors lived in poverty. Before Medicare, only half had some form of health insurance. Before Medicaid, parents often had no help covering the cost of care for a child with a disability. But as Americans, we declared that...

Obamacare improved key health-care measurements for millions of Americans, reversing a troubling trend, a new study strongly suggests. The study found marked gains in the number of people with insurance—as other research has repeatedly confirmed—as well as improved access to doctors and medications, affordable health care and good health status after implementation of the Affordable Care Act. But the research published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association also noted that the the gains in health coverage and access to care for low-income adults were particularly striking in states that expanded their Medicaid programs under the ACA to include more poor...

When President Johnson signed Medicare into law on June 30, 1965, he said , "If it has a few defects, I am confident those can be quickly remedied." Fifty years later, a Government Accountability Office report found that an eye-popping $60 billion — fully 10% of Medicare's budget — was lost to waste, fraud, abuse or improper payments last year. Among the glaring defects, the GAO found 23,400 fake or bad addresses on Medicare's list of providers. Between those two events, Medicare... Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/blogs-capital-hill/072915-764066-medicare-and-medicaid-are-both-in-a-sickly-state-at-50.htm#ixzz3hN0HmZHi Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook

More than a dozen states that opted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act have seen enrollments surge way beyond projections, raising concerns that the added costs will strain their budgets when federal aid is scaled back starting in two years. Some lawmakers warn the price of expanding the health care program for poor and lower-income Americans could mean less money available for other state services, including education. In Kentucky, for example, enrollments during the 2014 fiscal year were more than double the number projected, with almost 311,000 newly eligible residents signing up. That's greater than what was initially...

Republicans can forget about campaigning against Obamacare in 2016 if Ohio Gov. John Kasich is on the party’s presidential ticket. Conventional wisdom says Kasich will need to explain his Obamacare Medicaid expansion to Republican primary voters — but he’s been explaining it for two years. That’s the problem: most of Kasich’s arguments for Medicaid coverage for working-age adults with no kids and no disabilities sound like they were written by Democratic strategists. The longer Kasich is in the presidential race, the greater the potential for Democrats to capitalize on Kasich’s promotion of Obamacare. ... The governor told the Ohio General...

As we approach the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson signing the Medicare bill into law (July 30th), what better time to consider the seemingly intractable problem of healthcare? FDR tried to include a federal health insurance component into the Social Security Act of 1935, but backed off. Harry Truman, his successor, took up the cause again in 1945, 1947, and 1949. JFK would pick up the banner in 1961. During the 1965 signing, LBJ called the 81-year-old Truman “the real daddy of Medicare,” and presented him and his wife Bess with the first two Medicare cards. With the passage...

Expanding Medicaid to working-age Ohioans with no kids and no disabilities was supposed to cost $2.56 billion in its first year and a half. So much for that. After just 18 months, Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s Obamacare [Go to article to see graph.] Kasich underestimated the cost of the first 18 months of his Obamacare expansion by roughly $1.5 billion. Enrollment was almost 600,000 at the end of June, compared to Kasich’s projection of 366,000. Ohio’s Obamacare expansion has cost far more than expected because enrollment and per-member costs have both rocketed past expectations. Benefit costs have exceeded $325 million...

During the debates on ObamaCare, Medicaid got little attention. That was a mistake, since enrollment and the cost of treating all those jumping onto the program is surging beyond expectations.

After failing to persuade his Legislature to expand Medicaid, Gov. Bill Walker of Alaska said Thursday that he planned to unilaterally accept the federal funds available to cover more low-income residents under the program. Mr. Walker, an independent who took office in December, said in a news conference in Anchorage that he could not wait any longer to offer health coverage to the roughly 42,000 people his administration projects will be eligible under the expansion. Expanding Medicaid — an option for every state under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act — was a campaign priority for Mr. Walker, who couched it...