States hammering out Medicaid decisions on qualifications, expansion

In news about state Medicaid expansions, a hospital association in Missouri explores the state's place nationally and globally in caring for its poor. Elsewhere, Pennsylvania could require those out-of-work and on Medicaid to look for a job, and South Dakota mulls expanding the program.

St. Louis Beacon: Hospital Association Seeks To Reshape Medicaid Debate With 'A View Of Two Missouris'
An uninsured parent of two children would have to bring home less than $9.59 a day to qualify for Medicaid in Missouri, the federal-state insurance program for the needy. … The study frames the health care debate in global terms, noting that on matters of health and productivity, Missouri must not only compete with the state next door but with countries around the globe. In some instances, the report implies that Missouri is falling short of some poor nations (Joiner, 9/19).

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Corbett Stumping For Medicaid Plan
Out-of-work Medicaid recipients could be required to search for a job as part of a proposed health program overhaul in Pennsylvania -- that is, if the new plan gets the OK from the federal Department of Health and Human Services. "I think getting it approved by the federal government will be problematic," said Shannon Mace Heller, a public health attorney in Philadelphia, adding that she was not aware of any other state with a similar requirement in its Medicaid program (Giammarise, 9/19). 

Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, S.D.): Report To Daugaard: Boosting Medicaid Rewarding But Risky
Adding tens of thousands of low-income South Dakotans to the state's Medicaid program would have a big health and economic impact but raise budgetary and philosophical concerns, Gov. Dennis Daugaard was told Wednesday. ... Any benefits the state could see from expanding its Medicaid program, however, are tempered by the risk that the federal government won't come through with its promise to pay up to 90 percent of the cost of the expansion. ... Earlier this year, Daugaard decided not to ask the Legislature to expand Medicaid. Instead, he appointed a task force to study the issue (Montgomery and Lowrey, 9/18).