Koch Cartel Blocking Medicaid Expansion, Denying Hundreds of Thousands Care

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http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/koch-cartel-blocking-medicaid-expansion-denying-hundreds-thousands-care



Radical right-wingers in a series of red states are punishing hundreds of thousands of low-income people by blocking efforts by Republican governors to expand Medicaid—state-run health care—by modifying Obamacare to include Republican ideas.

Last week, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam’s alternative plan to expand Medicaid to an estimated 250,000 uninsured adults died in a state Senate committee after opponents with deep ties to the Koch brothers won a 7-4 vote. Haslam, chair of the Republican Governors Association, included GOP proposals like creating health reimbursement accounts to help individuals pay for out-of-pocket expenses, premiums and co-pays. Tennessee’s Hospital Association, Business Roundtable and Medical Association all supported his reforms, yet senior GOP legislators fell under the libertarian extremists’ spell that the federal government could not be trusted with its funds or red tape.

“We’re the third-worst state in the country for accepting federal dollars,” Andrew Ogles, Americans for Prosperity’s state director said during the debate. “It’s time for us to stop. Anytime we have a problem, instead of coming up with a Tennessee solution, we run to the federal government with our hands out. No more.”

Of course, the clamor for a state-based solution—a talking point repeatedly cited by Tea Partiers across the country who oppose Medicaid expansion—is no solution at all. It is a return to the status quo where thousands upon thousands lack reliable health care.

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