The Virginia GOP’s Medicaid plan: Just say no & Va. Republican offers plan to end Medicaid deadlock 29MAI14

VIRGINIA's repiglican / tea-bagger controlled House of Delegates needs to be called out for their hypocrisy on their claims to be Christian inspired defenders of the sanctity of life. They propose, and at times pass, legislation restricting a woman's access to abortion and even some forms of birth control, and then vote to deny health care expansion of Medicaid to the least among us, those Christ himself teaches us to care for (with no caveats about system abusers). So much for the sanctity of life once a child is born. So much for their claims to be guided by their faith. On the expansion of Medicaid they are hypocrites, and the proponents of expanding Medicaid to the 400,000+ Virginians who need it should start a Sanctity Of Life Roll Call of Shame with every Virginia legislator opposing Medicaid expansion listed on it. Virginia's repiglican and tea-bagger Richmond legislators don't hesitate to attack the morality of pro-choice and women's right legislators so turn-about is fair play. Who among the supporters of Medicaid expansion in Virginia has the courage to publicly expose the immorality of the opposition?
The "compromise" legislation proposed by VA sen emmett w hanger jr r Augusta and delegates william j howell r tb Stafford and m kirkland cox r tb Colonial Heights is nothing more than the deceptive obstructionism of the national gop / tea-baggers at the state level. They will use this proposal in their propaganda campaign against Gov McAuliffe's administration, seeking to build political pressure on the Democrats and the Governor to accept this immoral compromise to avoid a government shutdown, and will use it against him if the Democrats and the Governor when they reject it. NOW is the time for Gov McAuliffe to show the people of Virginia he isn't a DINO, and that he not going to be played by his political opposition in Richmond. These from the +Washington Post .....

The Virginia GOP’s Medicaid plan: Just say no

By Editorial Board, Published: May 29

WITH VIRGINIA lacking an enacted budget and facing the growing risk of a government shutdown in just over a month, the top Republicans in the House of Delegates, Speaker William J. Howell (Stafford) and Majority Leader M. Kirkland Cox (Colonial Heights), requested an urgent meeting the other day with Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D). Eager to surmount the impasse that may imperil Richmond’s ability to provide public safety, health care and other basic services — to say nothing of the state’s bond rating and reputation for good governance — surely the GOP bigwigs had constructive ideas, possibly even one that might sow the seeds of compromise.
They didn’t. In a 30-minute meeting, Mr. Howell and Mr. Cox had the same old one-note message about Medicaid expansion, which 27 states have now embraced. Their message was: No. They might as well have issued a news release and called it a day.

The two men didn’t just repeat their negative message; they broadened it. In the past, they have said no to expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Then they said no to a Senate-approved proposal — one drafted by a Republican and designed to appeal to conservatives — that would use new federal Medicaid funds to buy private insurance for low-income enrollees.
Finally, in the meeting with Mr. McAuliffe on Tuesday, Mr. Howell and Mr. Cox said no to a plan similar to that proposed by one of the most conservative Republican governors, Mike Pence of Indiana. Mr. Pence, like GOP governors in Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Utah and elsewhere, is seeking a deal that would unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid funds for an alternative to Medicaid. His plan would expand an existing state program that relies on health savings accounts to which participants contribute 2 to 5 percent of their monthly income; the state chips in Medicaid funds up to a strict limit.
Mr. Howell and Mr. Cox have no plan to cover the hundreds of thousands of low-income residents of Virginia who lack health insurance. Their only apparent agenda is to deal a political defeat to Mr. McAuliffe, who ran last year on a promise of expanding Medicaid, and by extension to President Obama. If the question contains the word “Medicaid,” Mr. Howell’s and Mr. Cox’s answers contain the word “no.”
Their strategy, if you can call it that, is likely to lead to disaster. Without a budget, salaries for the state’s 100,000 employees, who include police, prison guards and hospital workers, cannot be paid as scheduled on July 1. Ditto payments to holders of Virginia’s bonds, including those due $66 million on July 16 and $235 million on Aug. 1. Wall Street rating agencies will take immediate notice and are likely to downgrade the state’s bond ratings, which will cost Virginians millions more in higher interest payments.
Taking the governor for a fool, the GOP House leaders say they want to sever Medicaid from the budget and consider it separately in a special session. But since they have been crystal clear that their intent is to kill any Medicaid expansion plan, their proposal is really no proposal at all — again.

Read more:
The Post's View: Virginia plays chicken with Medicaid
The Post's View:Va. Republicans’ lonely Medicaid stand

Va. Republican offers plan to end Medicaid deadlock

By Laura Vozzella, Updated: Thursday, May 29, 9:52 PM E-mail the writer

RICHMOND — A key Republican ally in Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s bid to expand health coverage for the poor offered a plan Thursday to a break a months-long deadlock on the issue. But he also split with the governor by questioning McAuliffe’s power to keep government running without a budget or to expand Medicaid on his own.
Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr. (R-Augusta) offered a proposal to end the General Assembly’s budget-Medicaid stalemate, which threatens to shut down state government if it is not resolved by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

Proposal separates the issue from the budget debate but tilts state panel toward health-coverage expansion.

Hanger’s plan asks both sides to give a little, divorcing the Medicaid issue from the budget as opponents want but also remaking a state Medicaid commission so it could no longer block expansion. But the nitty-gritty made the plan somewhat more appealing to the GOP-dominated House, which opposes expansion, than to the evenly divided Senate, which narrowly supports it with the backing of Hanger and two other Republicans.
That the plan also came with a strongly worded statement questioning McAuliffe’s expansive view of his powers stoked hopes in the GOP that Hanger might be wavering. But Hanger said that was not the case.
“I’m not, by any means, backing away from my commitment,” Hanger said.
He said he was surely onto a good compromise because he’d gotten “a little pushback” from House Republicans as well as “my buddy Dick Saslaw,” referring to Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), a leading advocate for expansion.
House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) and other House GOP leaders cheered the parts of the plan that appealed to them — splitting Medicaid from the budget, taking a limited view of the governor’s powers — but were silent on the rest. Thursday afternoon, McAuliffe said he was “intrigued” by the plan and eager to learn more, but Saslaw was dismissive of it later in the day.
“That’s just one guy’s idea, and it ain’t a majority opinion,” Saslaw said. “The House may love it, but there’s not a lot of traction for it at this point.”
McAuliffe and the Senate support using Medicaid money to provide private insurance to 400,000 low-income, uninsured Virginians. They say that will help needy residents and boost Virginia’s economy at little cost to the state. Under the federal Affordable Care Act, Washington initially promises to pay 100 percent of the cost, with that share gradually reduced to 90 percent.
Republicans contend that Medicaid needs to be changed more extensively before it is expanded. They also fear that Virginia could get stuck with the $2 billion-a-year cost of expansion if an overextended Washington can’t keep its funding promise.
The dispute has prevented passage of a two-year, $96 billion state budget because the Senate includes it in its spending plan but the House does not.
Hanger’s proposal would pull Medicaid out of the budget, robbing the pro-expansion camp of its chief leverage. But it also calls for changing voting requirements for a state Medicaid commission to tilt control toward expansion supporters and away from opponents, who have the upper hand now.
There is a catch for those in favor of expansion: Hanger’s plan calls for the House only to consider the Medicaid commission bill, not pass it. Hanger said the Senate would maintain some leverage since negotiators would work on the budget and the Medicaid commission bill at the same time.
“If you’re working it concurrently, you have to have an element of faith, and you also still hold the cards,” he said. “Even though they’re decoupled, if the other side is not working with you in good faith, you really don’t have to pass the budget, either.”
Hanger issued the plan along with a strongly worded statement countering McAuliffe’s contention that he could keep the state government operating without a budget. Hanger also rejected the idea that McAuliffe could expand Medicaid through executive action — a route the administration has privately explored.
It “would be totally unacceptable for the Administration to assume executive powers to operate Virginia’s government without an approved budget or to expand Medicaid without the concurrence of the legislature,” Hanger wrote.