Va. Gov.'s Medicaid expansion proposal denied

Republicans in a House committee rejected the proposal, which is holding up a two-year budget deal.

The Washington Post: McAuliffe Offers New Budget, But House Lawmakers Aren't Buying
Gov. Terry McAuliffe tried to shake up Virginia's deadlocked Medicaid debate Monday by proposing a new budget that would expand the health care program and shower a projected $225 million in related savings on teachers, state employees, pre-kindergarten programs and other Democratic priorities (Vozzella, 3/24).

The Associated Press/Washington Post: McAuliffe Proposes 2-Year Pilot Medicaid Expansion
Gov. Terry McAuliffe proposed a two-year pilot of an expanded Medicaid program Monday in a bid to persuade Republicans to end an impasse over the state's budget. The new Democratic governor announced the plan shortly before the General Assembly returned to Richmond for the start of a special session. A few hours later, the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee voted to reject McAuliffe's proposal. The Democratically controlled Senate took no action (3/24).

Reuters: Virginia Governor, Lawmakers Fail To Reach Medicaid Deal
Virginia's Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, and the state's Republican-dominated House of Delegates on Monday failed to reach an agreement over Medicaid expansion during the first day of a special session called in hopes of reaching a budget deal. The impasse over Medicaid, the federal health care program for the poor, is holding up passage of a two-year, $96 billion budget (Robertson, 3/24).

The Richmond Times-Dispatch: McAuliffe Proposes Budget With Medicaid Pilot
The House of Delegates will meet tonight to set up a state budget confrontation that has a new player in the game -- Gov. Terry McAuliffe -- while the Virginia Senate has left town. McAuliffe moved Monday to take advantage of a rare opportunity for a first-year governor to introduce his own budget, including expansion of Virginia's Medicaid program to provide health coverage to up to 400,000 uninsured people. The governor's budget proposal, encompassing 104 amendments and proposals for using an estimated $225 million in state savings from Medicaid expansion, rankled House Republican leaders who want to deal with Medicaid separately (Martz, Meola and Nolan, 3/25).

And a new study looks at people in the states that aren't expanding the program -

The Hill: Study: States Refusing Medicaid Expansion Would Benefit The Most 
There are more than 15 million uninsured or underinsured people living below the poverty line in the 23 states that have refused to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, according to a new study by The Commonwealth Fund. Many of these states have among the highest rates of uninsured or underinsured people in the country, the study found (Easley, 3/25).