May 6 2014
The California Health Report examines how the state's efforts prioritized the marketplace issues but fell short in handling Medicaid enrollment. In other Medicaid expansion news, the Arkansas director announces he's leaving and Maine's legislature cannot override the governor's veto.
The California Health Report: State Officials Prioritized Insurance Exchange Over Enrollment System For The Poor
As they scrambled to open the insurance gates to millions of Californians under the federal health law, state officials prioritized the open-marketplace enrollment system over one for low-income residents, according to state documents and officials. That decision significantly contributed to the backlog of about 900,000 applications to Medi-Cal, the state's low-income health program. "People who don't have health care are all in need," said Frank Mecca, executive director of the County Welfare Directors Association, which closely monitors enrollment in Medi-Cal. "One group was prioritized over another, and I don't think that's good public policy" (Guzik, 5/4).
The Associated Press: Arkansas Medicaid Director Allison To Leave Post
The director of Arkansas' Medicaid office who led implementation of the private option is leaving his position. Andy Allison has been Arkansas' Medicaid director since 2011. The Department of Human Services announced Friday that Allison would leave, as of June 1 to pursue other opportunities (5/2).
Bangor Daily News: Legislature Overrides 15 Of LePage's 48 Recent Vetoes
During a return to session that people in the State House refer to as "Veto Day," lawmakers on Thursday overturned 15 of the 48 vetoes issued by Republican Gov. Paul LePage during the past two weeks. ... LePage won an expected double victory when the Legislature sustained his veto of two bills that would have expanded Medicaid under the auspices of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare. Democrats have made the effort to expand access to publicly funded health insurance to 70,000 Mainers their top priority for two years, and have passed five bills to do so. LePage has vetoed all five, and GOP lawmakers have stood by his side to sustain each veto. With the issue now dead at least until after this November's gubernatorial election, one lawmakers said the Medicaid expansion question had finally been put to bed (Moretto, 5/2).
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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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