ObamaCare supporters see wall of resistance cracking in the South: (BOG)
Supporters of ObamaCare are increasingly hopeful that Medicaid expansion could sweep through the deep-red South.
Not a single state in the lower south has accepted the standing offer under ObamaCare to expand Medicaid to people living up to 138 percent of the poverty line, which is about $33,000 for a family of four.
But that could soon change.
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) has expressed openness to Medicaid expansion if he is elected governor of Louisiana on Saturday, and his Democratic opponent, John Bel Edwards, has been an enthusiastic supporter of expansion as well.
More recently, there was surprising news out of Alabama, as a commission appointed by Republican governor Robert Bentley recommended expansion. Bentley said earlier this month that he is "looking" at the possibility of broadening Medicaid.
"What is going to happen is that support for Medicaid expansion will continue to build," Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell told Atlanta Magazine in an article published Monday. "You hear the Alabama governor. You’ve heard conversations in Louisiana."
Supporters of Medicaid expansion hope that if they can get a foothold in the South, other states will follow.
“I do think that if we have some states in that belt in the South then that will put pressure on the states around them,” said Dee Mahan, Medicaid program director at the liberal healthcare advocacy group Families USA.
Alabama is unlikely to simply expand the healthcare program as ObamaCare envisioned, but instead would likely negotiate with the administration to put a conservative twist on the program, as other Republican-led states have done....
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/260983-obamacare-supporters-see-wall-of-resistance-cracking-in-south via The Hill
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