Governors Work Senate As Power Brokers in Obamacare Repeal

A group of about a dozen Republican governors is pushing for its own set of national health care reforms, flexing its considerable muscle in the national debate over the future of Obamacare as the U.S. Senate begins writing its bill. Led by Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, the governors are using a nine-page proposal they crafted in February as the platform to shape what they think a critical portion of an Obamacare replacement law should look like, according to a half dozen people who helped write the plan. Among the group's recommendations for the Senate include maintaining the expansion of Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled, while also limiting federal spending for certain populations, according to a copy of the proposal. Members of the group, which include governors from Utah, Tennessee and Michigan, are also now looking to form a bipartisan coalition of states to propose reforms for the individual insurance market, according to one source, that they hope the Senate will also use. They have not yet met or decided on specific reforms about the individual insurance market, but the goal is to address issues such as how to make insurance more affordable and stabilize the markets. The House of Representatives narrowly passed its national health care bill earlier this month, called the American Health Care Act, which would slash federal Medicaid funding by more than $800 billion over the next decade. It has prompted fierce criticism from both R...
Source: Arkansas Business - Health Care - Category: American Health Source Type: news