Weekend Digest: Medicaid Expansion Makes The News
by July 13, 2012 5:23 pm 91 views
For our weekend political readers:
TV'S MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS
If you think the “Who shot J.R.?” episode on the show Dallas was America's most memorable TV moment during the past 50 years, you're not even close. It ranked #44.
How about the Beatles appearance on Ed Sullivan's show? It was only #43.
Sony Electronics and Nielsen television research company put the survey together.
They ranked TV moments for their impact not just by asking people if they remembered watching them, but if they recalled where they watched it, who they were with and whether they talked to other people about what they had seen.
Sony was interested in the study for clues on consumer interests and behaviors and found “that television is really the grandmother of all the social devices,” said Brian Siegel, vice president of television business for the company.
You'll have to go this link for the Wall Street Journal story to find out the highest ranked memorable moments, but we will say both men and women “agreed on the three most impactful television events” and yes, there is a political angle to them.
INVESTORS BULLISH ON MEDICAID EXPANSION
Despite all the political fighting about President Obama's plan to expand Medicaid, particularly among the red states, Politico.com reports “The market seems to think they are bluffing.”
Amerigroup — alongside other Medicaid-focused insurance firms such as Centene and Molina — stands to benefit from the program, as full participation from states would add an estimated 16 million people to the Medicaid rolls.
“When you step back from all this, there are billions of dollars of federal money that are going to flow into the states. We think the states are going to need to take it,” Amerigroup CEO James Carlson told analysts.
Rejecting the expansion would allow governors to take a tough political stand against Obama’s health care law, but they would pay a heavy price to do so. The health care law requires federal government to cover 100 percent of the costs of the expansion for the first three years — 2014 through 2016 — before scaling back to 90 percent by 2020.
Health industry investors and analysts say that’s more money than the governors will be willing to walk away from.
Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry this past week became the latest to “declare that the expansion won’t breach his state’s borders, taking advantage of the Supreme Court’s ruling barring the federal governments from punishing states for opting out.”
“I think Wall Street looks at that and says, ‘Wait a minute, these guys are nuts,’” said Richard Evans, an analyst for Connecticut-based Sector & Sovereign Research. “The market has been looking at the Republican governors’ statements as just political.”
Click on this link to find out what a heavy financial price states could pay for refusing Medicaid expansion and why “the health insurance industry is betting big that the governors' politics won't become their policies.”
SOME DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS SQUEAMISH ABOUT MEDICAID EXPANSION
“While the resistance of Republican governors has dominated the debate over the health-care law in the wake of last month’s Supreme Court decision to uphold it, a number of Democratic governors are also quietly voicing concerns about a key provision to expand coverage.
At least seven Democratic governors have been non-committal about their willingness to go along with expanding their Medicaid programs, the chief means by which the law would extend coverage to millions of Americans with incomes below or near the poverty line.”
A Washington Post article points out that the Medicaid expansion was a hot button topic at the recent National Governors Association meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia.
e>And it has been fueled by a long list of unanswered questions about the choice now before states.
In particular, it is unclear how the court’s pronouncement that states cannot be penalized for refusing to adopt the law’s more generous eligibility standards for Medicaid in 2014 changes the rules governing the expansion.
For more analysis on the “confusion” for governors of both parties and to find out what the Post has to say, including comments on Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe's potential plans for the expansion, click here.
NEW FARM BILL WOULD CUT $12 BILLION FROM FOOD STAMPS
The House Agriculture Committee bill has voted to pass its version “that cuts $12 billion more from the food stamps program than a Senate bill passed last month and adds several new crop insurance and price support programs to protect farmers during natural disasters or when prices fall.”
“Today marked an important step forward in the development of the next farm bill,” said Representative Frank D. Lucas, Republican of Oklahoma and chairman of the House agriculture committee. “This is a balanced, reform-minded, fiscally responsible bill that underscores our commitment to production agriculture and rural America, achieves real savings and improves program efficiency.”
But the New York Times reports that “even after the agriculture committee vote, several obstacles stand in the way of getting a farm bill to the full House and passed before the election: a short legislative calendar to get work done, fundamental differences between House and Senate versions of the bill and pressure from conservatives for greater cuts in government spending over the objections of liberal lawmakers.”
Despite those obstacles, read the Times story to find what differences Chairman Lucas plans to reconcile between the two versions of the bill, and to learn what other major changes are proposed that include a restructuring of direct subsidies paid to farmers.
AMERICA'S LANTERN GOING OUT?
That's the analysis in a gritty and poignant story posted by the Atlantic.
“Let's face it, even with all the problems in Europe, and everywhere, the American lantern is not as brightly inviting as it used to be. When Americans travel abroad, they are often surprised at how well other countries do the things we used to think America does best.”
Young Americans who see this country from different shores can't help but conclude that something is awry in a political culture that denies what they plainly see elsewhere: health care systems that provide better outcomes at lower cost and for everyone; better airports, faster trains, more extensive urban public transportation — and even, amazingly, better highways; more upward mobility (yes, the American dream is now more real in many other countries than it is here); more sustainable energy policies; elections that work more quickly and inexpensively, with more rational discourse and greater citizen participation. The list is long.
The writer, Elliot Gerson, points out that “the American lantern of attraction” is being dimmed by a slew of alarming problems that begin with education. Student performance in math is now ranked 27th when compared with the” 34 advanced economies, and behind many developing countries as well.”
He sees apathy at the polls as a major crisis, “Because they think it doesn't matter who wins, that no real change is possible. They think the power of special interests is simply too great. And they are right.”
Read the entire essay to see if you agree or disagree with Gerson's observations.