Medicaid Innovation by States Working : Wisconsin Leads the Way

It appears that Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker has shown the way to solving the problem of providing medical services to his state residences that require medicals attention but find it hard to afford. Other state are innovating as well to bring good health care to their citizens.

On the other hand, as we are finding out, it appears Mr Obama Affordable Care Act (ACA) doesn't do anything of any substance to fix the problems of health insurance to those that need it. What the ACA does is destroy healthcare for everyone else and at the same time denies health care to the poor. Aa a by product, the ACA is destroying the health care insurance industry which the progressives see as the way to bring about Single Payer Health Care.

But really, all this hubbub about providing health insurance and health are for the needy is not about health care or insurance for health care at all, it's really all about  health care as a tool to control the population. You have to believe everything that the progressive socialist democrats do or say is about control. Never believe otherwise.

Medicaid Expansion: Beyond Yes or No
Source: Angela Boothe, "Medicaid Expansion: Beyond Yes or No," Real Clear Policy, April 1, 2014.
April 4, 2014

Governors across the country are negotiating with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to implement solutions for their Medicaid programs that focus on the needs of their state, rejecting the static, blindly restrictive choice to simply expand or not under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The administration should be welcoming innovative solutions at the state level, not delaying approval or restricting programs from Washington, says Angela Boothe, a health care policy analyst at the American Action Forum.

States (even those not expanding their programs) are facing increasing Medicaid applications and enrollment numbers, signaling new costs and heavy impacts on state budgets. Governors are tasked with the challenge of providing care for those who need it most while managing these growing costs.

• Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker recently launched a new Medicaid-reform initiative that deems all individuals earning up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) (and children up to 300 percent FPL) eligible for Medicaid services and moves those above 100 percent of the FPL to the Federally Facilitated Marketplace to receive subsidized coverage.
• With this change, Wisconsin will still provide Medicaid coverage to its poorest and most vulnerable residents, while greatly decreasing the number of individuals on waiting lists for Medicaid services.
• By moving more individuals into the insurance marketplace, Governor Walker's reforms will also place more responsibility for health coverage in the hands of the individuals receiving care.
• Between Medicaid and the exchange, an estimated 224,580 people will receive coverage -- reducing the size of Wisconsin's uninsured population by 47 percent.

Governor Walker is not alone in working to improve Medicaid at the state level.

• Under Governor Mike Beebe, Arkansas is pursuing Medicaid expansion using a market-based approach for its uninsured population of over 500,000.
• Governor Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, meanwhile, has a plan that encourages individuals to move into the workforce.
• Other states have implemented personal-responsibility provisions in their Medicaid programs as well, including Indiana and Oklahoma. Yet these programs will be phased out due to the restrictions imposed by ObamaCare.

There is no silver bullet for bending the Medicaid cost curve and these are ideas we should be exploring. Governors are ready to innovate, but they need a willing partner in CMS.