Tag: medicaid

Texas subpoenas Planned Parenthood records from 2010 on.

Wonderful thing, a subpoena.

Texas health officials showed up at five Planned Parenthood facilities Thursday morning with subpoenas for patient and employee records, according to the clinics.

Officials with the inspector general’s office at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission went to two facilities in Houston as well as clinics in Dallas, San Antonio and Brownsville. The Brownsville center does not perform abortions.

…but the Brownsville center may have indulged in Medicaid fraud. Certainly the state of Texas thinks that the rest of Planned Parenthood may have indulged in Medicaid fraud.  And why would they think that?  Well, I don’t know: maybe it’s because back in 2013 Planned Parenthood got caught doing precisely that: Continue reading Texas subpoenas Planned Parenthood records from 2010 on.

Quote of the Day, This Is One Reason I Fought Obamacare All The Way Down edition.

Via Instapundit comes this sober assessment of the ultimate fate of Obamacare: ” The program may be shaping up as a modest expansion of Medicaid, coupled with a more robust version of the old high-risk pools.” …Can we just establish something, here? ‘Expanding Medicaid,’ as Medicaid is currently configured (and the Democrats did pretty much nothing to reconfigure it), does not actually help poor people.  It hides them – because, hey, they’ve got health care insurance now! …Which doctors don’t want to take, and when the doctors do take it the coverage isn’t very good, and there’s no driving urge on the Left’s part to fix things because, hey, Medicaid is health insurance!

…Which doctors don’t want to take, and when the doctors do take it the coverage isn’t very good, and there’s no driving urge on the Left’s part to fix things because, hey, Medicaid is health insurance!

…Which doctors don’t want to take, and when the doctors do take it the coverage isn’t very good, and there’s no driving urge on the Left’s part to fix things because, hey, Medicaid is health insurance!

…See where I’m going with this?

How Terry McAuliffe failed to impose Medicaid expansion on Virginia.

This Washington Post article on Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe’s futile attempt to sneak Medicaid expansion past his own state legislature is fascinating, but it has several flaws in it.  There are things that are not mentioned enough, things that are mentioned too much, and at least one thing that is not mentioned at all.  Unsurprising, given that the WaPo remains a Democratic cheerleader; but still slightly disappointing.

Quick summary of the article: at the beginning of the saga, Terry McAuliffe was faced with a barely Democratic state Senate and a solidly Republican General Assembly.  This meant that if Gov. McAuliffe wanted to get Medicaid expansion through the legislature, he’d need to sweet-talk the Republicans into going along – HAH!  Who am I kidding?  Nah, his team of trained legislation-breakers found a suitable loophole, in classic Democratic party fashion* – and snuck it into the budget.  Alas, Democrat state Senator Phillip Puckett was made a deal (which apparently had nothing to do with any of this) that flipped the state Senate (despite the frantic deal-making efforts of every Virginia Democrat from McAuliffe on down); that, coupled with conservative watchdogs and Eric Cantor’s remarkable primary loss, scuppered the inclusion of language in the Virginia budget that would have permitted said loophole.  Sic transit gloria McAuliffe. Continue reading How Terry McAuliffe failed to impose Medicaid expansion on Virginia.

Annnnnd there goes Virginia Democrats’ state Senate majority.

Lots of people blinking over this, I reckon:

State Sen. Phillip P. Puckett- D-Russell has resigned his seat, leaving Democrats one vote shy of the majority they need to control the chamber.

Puckett’s stunning resignation throws Democratic budget strategy into chaos and opening the way for Republicans to seize control of the chamber and reorganize its committees with GOP majorities, the Richmond Times Dispatch said in a report issued late Sunday.

Despite brave Democratic rhetoric to the contrary, this puts McAuliffe’s entire Medicaid expansion plan in jeopardy. While the state Senate still technically has a two vote majority (including three Republicans) in place for expansion, the new Republican majority now has a potential tool to reel in recalcitrant members. Given that Puckett was essentially bought off* with a judgeship for his daughter and a nice tobacco commission spot for himself, be rest assured that events will, as they say, continue to proceed.  Should be a thing!

Via

Moe Lane

*Please note that the term ‘bought off’ is not intended to be representative of the moral or legal conditions involved in any deal between state Senator Puckett and the Republican party. Besides,the Democrats do it all the time.

#Obamacare causing MORE Medicaid recipients to use emergency rooms.

AS John Ekdahl notes, we were told that the opposite was going to happen.  And yet, here we are: “Nationally, nearly half of ER doctors responding to a recent poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians said they’ve seen more visits since Jan. 1, and nearly nine in 10 expect those visits to rise in the next three years. Mike Rust, president of the Kentucky Hospital Association, said members statewide describe the same trend.”  Essentially, what is happening is that people on Medicaid are discovering that having access to a form of medical insurance does not mean the same as access to medical care.  Many doctors do not take Medicaid, and there’s not enough doctors anyway: but the emergency room is always there; as a result, not only are more people using ERs, they’re also using them for a wider range of services than, strictly speaking, emergency ones.

Continue reading #Obamacare causing MORE Medicaid recipients to use emergency rooms.

Terry McAuliffe, would-be dictator of Virginia.

Having discovered that it’s much harder to convince somebody of something when you can’t buy them off, Terry McAuliffe is now thinking of ignoring this pesky ‘democracy’ thing entirely:

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is considering expanding health coverage for the poor without the approval of the state legislature, a move that would muscle his top priority past Republican opponents but also throw his young administration into a partisan firestorm and uncertain legal territory.

McAuliffe and his top advisers have consulted lawyers, health-care experts and legislators on how to bypass the GOP-dominated House of Delegates, according to three people familiar with the discussions. A fourth, who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal private strategy, said the office of Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) has been researching the matter.

Continue reading Terry McAuliffe, would-be dictator of Virginia.

Medicaid expansion may be starting to retreat in Virginia.

This is a remarkable shift in the polling: “A majority of Virginians oppose using federal Medicaid funds to expand health coverage, according to a new poll that finds public opinion has rapidly soured on Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s top priority. The Wason Center at Christopher Newport University poll found that 53 percent of the state’s voters oppose enrolling more Virginians in the federal-state health program for the poor, a sharp reversal from February, when the center found that 56 percent backed expansion.” The basic problem is that when Terry McAuliffe ran for Governor of Virginia he promised to push Medicaid expansion if it meant starting a budget crisis. McAuliffe got elected: he pushed Medicaid expansion; Virginia is getting ready to have a budget crisis.

And Virginians aren’t actually happy about that: “Sixty-five percent said both parties would be equally responsible, and 78 percent said McAuliffe would share some or a lot of the blame.” What McAuliffe is currently discovering here is that that sort thing translates to the electorate is going to be equally mad at one specific person, and an entire group of people who are all worthless anyway (except for their own representatives). Guess who ends up with the bigger headache? Continue reading Medicaid expansion may be starting to retreat in Virginia.

Hey! #Obamacare hurts the poor, thanks to Medicaid. I know: shocker, huh?

Why Danielle Kimberly’s quality of life has been degraded:

As a proud new beneficiary of the Affordable Health Care Act, I’d like to report that I am doctorless. Ninety-six. Ninety-six is the number of soul crushing rejections that greeted me as I attempted to find one. It’s the number of physicians whose secretaries feigned empathy while rehearsing the “I’m so sorry” line before curtly hanging up. You see, when the rush of the formerly uninsured came knocking, doctors in my New Jersey town began closing their doors and promptly telling insurance companies that they had no room for new patients.

Why things will not get better for Ms. Kimberly:

I remain grateful for the Affordable Care Act…

No, no, NO. Also: why is she grateful for Obamacare? It hasn’t done a single thing for her!  And it won’t, because the Democrats don’t have to do anything for her!  She’ll thank them anyway! If she wants them to do something for her, then she should start saying things like I’m voting for the other guy in the next election.  They’ll listen to that, ya, you betcha. Continue reading Hey! #Obamacare hurts the poor, thanks to Medicaid. I know: shocker, huh?