Graham-Cassidy's sponsors are relying in large part on support from Republican governors to win senators' votes for the bill. Today, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey came out in favor, notwithstanding that CBPP estimates that Arizona stands to lose $1.6 billion in federal funding in 2026 alone under the bill's redistribution formula.
At BlueWave New Jersey, we are calling on NJ Governor Chris Christie this week to defend the state's Medicaid expansion and coverage gains and come out against Graham-Cassidy. I have a letter in today's print Star-Ledger, but it's not online. Here is the text:
Behold the last and worst of the ACA repeal bills, introduced this week by four Republican U.S. senators.The bill ends the ACA Medicaid expansion, ultimately ends all ACA funding to help people gain health insurance, and guts federal spending on all Medicaid programs, which serve 75 million Americans. It also systematically shifts federal dollars from states that, like New Jersey, embraced the ACA Medicaid expansion. By 2026, New Jersey would be losing almost $4 billion per year in federal funding, according to an estimate by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. At least a half million people in the state would lose coverage, based on analyses of less sweeping previous repeal bills by New Jersey Policy Perspectives.
The new repeal bill's sponsors have stated that they are relying on Republican governors to build support for the bill. In 2013, Gov. Chris Christie embraced the ACA Medicaid expansion, which led to some half million New Jerseyans gaining access to comprehensive health insurance. New Jerseyans should demand that he defend the enormous benefit to the state that this decision yielded and speak out against this last-gasp effort to roll back the ACA's gains and gut Medicaid.
Andrew Sprung
Co-chair, Healthcare Committee
BlueWaveNJ
The real but unstated Republican view is that if you lose Medicaid funding, then you also lose some of the Medicaid people, i.e. some poor persons will move out of your state.
ReplyDeleteThe unstated goal of hard core ACA repeal programs is to 'thin the herd."