Word: medicaid
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...relatively small provision to expand state access to family-planning services under Medicaid was seized on late last week by House Republicans as one of their chief reasons for opposing the stimulus bill. Democrats, they charged, wanted to use taxpayer money that was supposed to create jobs to instead "fund the abortion industry" and pass out contraceptives. The Republicans were caught off guard when Obama called their bluff and asked congressional Democrats to remove the provision - and fell back to complaining about the bill's cost and the insufficient size of tax cuts. But then it was liberals' turn...
What would the Medicaid provision have done...
Before Obama took office, a group of health organizations including the March of Dimes sent memos to his transition aides asking for a change in federal policy to alter a Bush-era Medicaid policy. Current law does not allow women of childbearing age (15-44) to become eligible for Medicaid coverage until after they become pregnant or they have children who are enrolled in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). States that want to expand their Medicaid coverage to allow low-income women to access family-planning services must first obtain a federal waiver...
...communities facing the most drastic contractions - and even those shouldn't be rewarded for frittering away surpluses on sunny-day tax cuts and race-to-the-bottom subsidies designed to lure out-of-state businesses. States shouldn't be rewarded for keeping their fiscal houses in order by stiffing Medicaid programs either...
Obama's team has proposed increasing the federal share of Medicaid in exchange for assurances that states won't knock more families off their rolls. And his advisers hope to direct the aid where it's needed most - a tough sell in the Senate, where every state has equal power. But Obama should drive a hard bargain. He could provide more aid to states that promote energy efficiency through building codes and incentives for utilities. He could funnel aid directly to transit agencies and metropolitan governments, which tend to be more progressive than states. He could take Senate minority leader...