May 5 2014
In California, 900,000 people are still awaiting final processing of their Medicaid applications. Meanwhile, the impasse over the budget and Medicaid expansion continues in Virginia and The Washington Post reports that Gov. Terry McAuliffe is examining legal strategies to make the move without legislative approval.
Los Angeles Times: Medi-Cal Backlog Hits 900,000 As Computer Problems Persist
Around 900,000 Medi-Cal applicants statewide -- 300,000 of them in Los Angeles County -- are still awaiting final processing of their applications, state and local officials said Wednesday. The state backlog grew by 100,000 during the month of April, as new applications for the state's healthcare program for the poor continued pouring in and stubborn problems with computer systems persisted (Brown, 5/1).
The Washington Post: McAuliffe Explores Whether He Can Expand Medicaid Coverage Without Legislature's Okay
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 (Vozzella, 5/1).
Democrats in Kansas are unhappy with GOP tactics that have precluded talk about Medicaid expansion -
The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Democrats Say Kansas Medicaid Expansion Won't Be Debated After GOP Maneuvers
Kansas House Democrats said Wednesday discussion of Medicaid expansion was essentially over for this legislative session after procedural moves by Republicans to avoid floor debate on the topic in the lower chamber. Democrats said they are angry that Republicans took a bill originally dealing with hospital liens and rewrote into 781 pages of technical changes to state statutes. ... Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat, said the earlier version of the bill was germane to the discussion of state Medicaid expansion and therefore could have been a vehicle for amendment and debate on the House floor. The Republican rewrite, he said, was intended to avoid the discussion about Medicaid expansion (Graff, 5/1).
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 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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