Medicaid Expansion Battle Remains Hot

Medicaid expansion continues to heat up the budget debate in Concord, a week after Senate President Peter Bragdon (R-Milford) announced he'd offer an amendment to remove it from the state budget and, instead, create a commission to study it over the next year.

Jeb Bradley, Senate Majority Leader, argued the point during Sunday's edition of CloseUp on WMUR. "Let's not get it quick, let's get it right," Bradley said to host Josh McElveen. Bradley (R-Wolfeboro) likened it to the federal government's failure to fully fund special education. Sen. Andrew Hosmer (D-Laconia) rebutted his remarks: he said funding for special education is totally different and that New Hampshire could lose out on $400 million.

Watch their exchange on CloseUp.

Medicaid is a federal-state program that helps pay health care for the needy, elderly, blind, disabled and low-income families and children. The federal government reimburses a percentage of the state's expenditure. Learn more about Medicaid here.

Bragdon's amendment proposes studying various aspects of expansion, including:

• purchasing insurance through private companies,
• identifying steps to expand state flexibility on program design,
• weighing the impact of increased eligibility on providers.

In a statement, Bragdon said the state must fully examine the federal law in all aspects of the Affordable Care Act, aka "Obamacare."

"The U.S. Supreme Court, in its recent ruling regarding the ACA, made it clear that states have the flexibility to either expand their Medicaid programs or not under this new and extremely complex federal law. As a result, New Hampshire should take the time to understand this complex and costly offer. The federal government is making many promises when it comes to helping states fund Medicaid expansion, but we have been disappointed before with these types of promises and need to be cautious. Furthermore, neither the information we have received from HHS nor other studies, are able to point to clear evidence to prove expanding Medicaid will lead to lower costs or improved health care outcomes. Given all this, I believe establishing a bi-partisan commission is our best course of action at this time to help answer these outstanding questions. It’s just the responsible thing to do for our citizens."

It remains a hot-button issue. Supporters of Medicaid expansion, including the NH Citizens Alliance for Action, turned out at a recent Bragdon fund-raiser to protest.

Gov. Maggie Hassan has also blasted Senate Republicans for moving to oppose Medicaid expansion. Her statement on it:

“The decision by Senate Republican leadership to reject $2.5 billion in federal dollars will make health coverage more expensive for hard-working New Hampshire families and undermine our state’s economic recovery. They are rejecting health coverage for tens of thousands of working families, rejecting 700 jobs, and rejecting more than $92 million in savings for our state. Uncompensated care at our hospitals' emergency rooms and health centers increases costs for everyone, and rejecting these dollars will mean more than 58,000 Granite Staters will continue to go without health insurance.

Despite the fact that, across the country, leaders from both parties have agreed that expansion is a good deal and the right thing to do, Senate Republicans have made the wrong decision for our families, our economy and the ongoing efforts to innovate and strengthen our health care system. I urge New Hampshire’s Senators to rise above ideology and move forward with accepting these critical dollars that will strengthen the health of our people and our economy."

The New Hampshire Senate is meeting Thursday, June 6, for votes on the two-year state budget that begins July 1.