PROVIDENCE, R.I. — U.S. governors responded largely along partisan lines Thursday to the latest Republican health care overhaul, although the plan’s long-term rollback in Medicaid funding remains a concern among many from both parties.
The measure released by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell retains cuts to the state-federal insurance program for the poor, disabled and nursing home patients.
Many governors have said they want Congress to protect people who gained coverage through the expansion of Medicaid that was allowed under former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Some 11 million Americans in 31 states have benefited from expanded Medicaid.
“The president promised us that everybody was going to get coverage, it would cost less and we’d get better results,” said Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat who is chairman of the National Governors Association, which is meeting this week in Providence. “This plan that they just put out doesn’t do any of that.”
Lower-income people who don’t qualify for the program often go uninsured, showing up at emergency rooms for urgent treatment. Those costs often get passed along to the state.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, said Republicans in Congress want to “kill health care” by phasing out the federal subsidy used to expand Medicaid and by ending protections for pre-existing conditions.
Republicans attending the summer gathering were more receptive.
GOP Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky said the new bill represents progress over an earlier version in the Senate and one that previously passed the House. He said it puts more emphasis on state control and flexibility to design health care programs.
“What we have is broken,” he said. “Give the states the control and the flexibility and we’ll take care of the problem. We can produce healthier outcomes.”
Bevin has been an opponent of the Affordable Care Act, calling it a “disaster” in Kentucky because of higher premiums for some consumers and increased costs for taxpayers. Yet seen through another lens, Kentucky has been one of the states to benefit most from the federal health care law, thanks mostly to expanded Medicaid that was pushed by the previous governor, a Democrat.
Under the expansion, 400,000 Kentucky residents gained medical coverage, helping the state’s uninsured rate fall from 20 percent to 7.5 percent in just two years.
