What point is the author making?

Question Answered step-by-step What point is the author making? What evidence is presented that supports their point of view? Beyond expanding Medicare benefits, Democrats say they’ll fit another health priority into their $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill: getting Medicaid expansion to adults in states that have refused it.Finding a workaround in GOP-led states scorning Medicaid expansion would be deeply gratifying to Democratic lawmakers, both policy-wise and politically. But it’s sure to be a more complex task.”This push for Medicaid expansion is now on the road to being included in the next economic package,” Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) told reporters on a call yesterday. “I’m glad to be part of a caucus asking the right questions during this moment.”Medicaid expansion is Democrats’ next big frontier to further expand the Affordable Care Act.They want to go around about a dozen GOP-led states to get Medicaid to more than 4 million low-income adults.These adults live in states — mostly southern ones — that refused the Affordable Care Act’s offer of Medicaid expansion for people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. About half in this group do have individual marketplace coverage but could be eligible for lower-cost Medicaid under expansion. The rest don’t have access to federally subsidized health insurance at all.Democrats have long wrung their hands over the situation but have been powerless to force the GOP-led states to expand the program. But now, energy is building among liberal activists, lawmakers and administration officials to try to tackle the issue in the Democrats-only reconciliation bill aimed for later this year.”We’ve been really very much focused on getting it done and having it look as close as possible to Medicaid,” said Judy Solomon, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “For today, we’re kind of celebrating.”More details about what will be in the budget reconciliation bill emerged yesterday.”Senate Democrats on Wednesday offered fresh details about their sweeping $3.5 trillion budget proposal, promising that it would augment Medicare coverage, lower prescription drug costs, invest heavily in new programs to combat climate change and tackle long-standing policy priorities on immigration,” our colleagues Jeff Stein and Tony Romm report.”The plan lays the groundwork for a massive expansion in the size and power of the government, which supportive lawmakers likened in significance to the post-Depression era of the New Deal, stressing that they plan to fund much of the proposal with new taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations,” they add.Warnock has a Medicaid expansion bill, but it won’t necessarily be the one Congress uses.Warnock teamed up with Sen. Jon Ossoff, also a Democrat from Georgia, and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) on legislation that would create program that closely resembles Medicaid — but is administered by the federal government, not the states themselves.The bill orders the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to offer a Medicaid-like plan to those eligible in holdout states. People could enroll in the coverage through the year and could only be charged small co-payments and no premiums, the way Medicaid works in most states.But other Democrats have worked on Medicaid expansion approaches, too. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) has a bill that would let cities and counties undertake Medicaid expansion on their own. House Energy and Commerce Committee staff are also working on a pathway.One key is to make sure the measure still incentivizes states to expand on their own.Under the Warnock measure, states could be rewarded for expanding Medicaid with a 10 percent increase in their federal reimbursements for non-expansion enrollees. The extra payments would last for a decade. That incentive is far stronger than what was included in a spring coronavirus relief bill, which provided a 5 percent payment increase for just two years.”Those sweeteners, if you will, are still there, but in the meantime we’re saying the people shouldn’t have to suffer because the politicians are playing politics,” Warnock said.ACA data analyst Charles Gaba:If it just involves an even BIGGER bribe to the holdout states I don’t expect it to work–Missouri GOP just threw away $1.2 BILLION and that was AFTER their voters baked Medicaid expansion into the f*cking state constitution. https://t.co/fRSH7FZT8k— Charles #GetVaxxed! ? (@charles_gaba) July 14, 2021There are additional targets to hit.Democrats want to ensure whatever Medicaid plan is created closely resembles typical Medicaid coverage, with a range of benefits and little-to-no costs for enrollees.And they can’t forget this — it must get a nod from the Senate parliamentarian. Democrats are fitting Medicaid expansion into a budget reconciliation bill, requiring just a simple Senate majority to pass, and there are certain rules about what can and cannot be included. There are limits around creating new government programs, and any element must have a direct impact on government spending.”I think over the coming weeks, an appropriate measure will be developed that will pass muster and still close the coverage gap,” Solomon said. “There will be a way to do it.”HuffPost reporter Jonathan Cohn:Feels to me like the biggest question is still over Medicaid gap.VERY clear need, popular too. But it’s complex, costly and doesn’t do much directly for states of most Democratic senators — except, notably, the two from Georgia.Cunningham, P. W. (2021, July 15). Analysis | the HEALTH 202: Democrats are also aiming for Medicaid expansion in THEIR go-it-alone bill. The Washington Post. Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/15/health-202-democrats-are-also-aiming-medicaid-expansion-their-go-it-alone-bill/. Health Science Science Nursing NURS 45500 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)