No State Input 'Unconscionable': GOP Govs Slam Health-Care Law
Some Republican governors argue that Medicaid expansions are too onerous.
Mar. 1, 2011— -- Two Republican governors appeared before a House committee today to berate what they dubbed the burdensome requirements of the new health care law, a day after President Obama threw a bone to Republicans by endorsing a Senate bill allowing states to opt out of it.
"It will absolutely drive up my cost," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said of the Medicaid expansion, the focus of today's hearing called by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The Affordable Care Act, which passed nearly a year ago, requires states to expand Medicaid eligibility by 2014 to all Americans whose incomes are at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty line. The federal government will bankroll much of the initial costs, but some governors argue that's not enough.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert estimated the expansion is going to cost his state an additional $1.2 to $1.3 billion in the next 10 years.
"We will have to cut some of the programs or raise taxes, which will probably have a dampening effect on our fragile recovering economy," he told lawmakers. "The options are not good for us."
But Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick defended the expansion, arguing that his own state has averted problems that others are facing because of its comprehensive law. The federal health care law was modeled after the Massachusetts law, which passed under Republican Gov. Mitt Romney but has been the subject of much criticism by GOP lawmakers in recent years.
The law is "worth fighting for," Patrick said. "99.8 percent of Massachusetts' children have health insurance and I'm very very proud of it."
The House hearing comes at a time when calls for repeal of the health care law are growing louder. House Republicans have stripped crucial funding from the health care bill in their continuing resolution for the remainder of the fiscal year, and they're promising more cuts ahead.
The political debate has been so heavy-handed that Americans appear to be even more confused than before about where things stand. One in five Americans think the health law has been repealed, another quarter say they're not sure, according to a poll conducted by the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
Medicaid expansion in the health care law is one of the biggest points of contention and one that has pitted states against the federal government.
