Indiana gov. pitches Obama on his brand of Medicaid expansion

Gov. Mike Pence discussed his proposal to expand Medicaid directly with President Barack Obama on Friday. The Republican governor is seeking a federal waiver to be able to require low-income recipients to pay a nominal fee toward their premiums.

The Wall Street Journal: Indiana's Gov. Pence Presses Obama On Medicaid Plans
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence put the future of the Medicaid program front and center when President Barack Obama landed in Evansville, Ind., on Friday afternoon. Mr. Pence, a Republican, told the president in a five-minute conversation that negotiations with federal officials to extend Medicaid to an additional 350,000 Hoosiers are stalling over a key tenet: the state's desire to require the low-income participants in the federal-state insurance program to pay premiums toward the cost of their coverage. Such a requirement is anathema to many of the program's most forceful advocates (Radnofsky, 10/3).

Indianapolis Star: Pence Alternative Medicaid Plan Faces Hurdles 
Gov. Mike Pence's alternative Medicaid expansion proposal has run into problems winning federal approval. Pence hasn't disclosed what those problems are, saying only that issues arose during negotiations that threaten to compromise the effectiveness of his proposal. That proposal is a version of the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) pilot program that's been in place for a limited number of Hoosiers since 2008. ... HIP is modeled after high-deductible plans with health savings accounts that advocates say give consumers an incentive to make smarter health care spending choices. But the financial contributions required by the poor and near-poor could run afoul of federal Medicaid rules (Groppe, 10/3).

CNN: Why Is This GOP Governor Talking Health With Obama?
As soon as Air Force One touched down in Indiana on Friday, Gov. Mike Pence met President Barack Obama on the tarmac with a plea: Expand the state's access to government-sponsored health insurance. The catch: Pence wants to do it with a conservative twist. At least, that's how he's selling his proposal. And his political future could hinge on whether the first-term Republican can convince conservatives that he's not just rebranding Obamacare (Bradner, 10/3).

Meanwhile, Maryland continues to add Medicaid enrollees - 

Baltimore Sun:  Maryland Adds 22K Medicaid Consumers 
The state health insurance exchange continued enrolling consumers in Medicaid, adding almost 22,000 new people to the rolls in the last month, according to a report released Friday. The report said 376,850 people in the state have gained coverage under the federal-state program for the low-income since the exchange launched a year ago under the federal Affordable Care Act. Another 2,425 people bought private insurance plans in the last month, though the open enrollment period is closed. Only those with a family or work change are eligible to enroll now. Altogether, 81,091 people have bought private coverage through the exchange (Cohn, 9/3).