David Harlow

First published 3/3/11 on HealthBlawg

Medicaid has been front and center this week as President Obama addressed the National Governors Association, and several governors testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  Obama told the governors that he supports the Wyden-Brown bill, which would accelerate the availability of waivers under the Affordable Care Act (from 2017 to 2014), so that states would not have to first create health insurance exchanges under the law, and then only later have the right to dismantle them and replace them with other mechanisms to achieve coverage goals of the law without additional cost to the federales.  (See Wyden-Brown fact sheet)  The law as it stands hurts the early adopters.  Without the change, the sponsors’ home states, Oregon and Massachusetts would have to dismantle parts of their own health reform efforts in order to align with the federal mandates, only to potentially change things up agian three years down the road.  (Wyden has been a longer-term proponent of experimentation and innovation in health reform than Brown, and the opportunity to innovate three years down the road is in the ACA because of him.)

Continue reading “Medicaid: Busting the Budget Buster with Real Innovation or Re-Arranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic?” →