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Not the highest-profile ACA/healthcare story in the world, but Wyoming almost never makes the news, and this is especially noteworthy given the state, the Governor and the GOP having total control over the federal government:
As health care debate simmers, Mead laments lack of Medicaid expansion in Wyoming
Gov. Matt Mead lamented the $100 million that Wyoming left on the table by choosing not to expand Medicaid, and he expressed concern for the state’s hospitals while discussing health care with the Star-Tribune recently.
Mead echoed some of the fears that many Wyoming hospital officials have expressed for months: that congressional proposals to overhaul the health care system may have negative effects on facilities here and that the state has suffered because it chose not to allow more people to qualify for Medicaid.
“The idea that we did not accept Medicaid expansion and things are going to be good just hasn’t turned out,” he said.
He said that because the state didn’t expand Medicaid — a proposal he supported in the past — Wyoming has missed out on $100 million a year in federal aid. He added that in Wyoming, the program is currently facing a $20 million deficit.
Here's the money quote, though:
“The ACA, there’s certainly some room for improvement,” he continued. “But to throw it out just because it’s the ACA, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Think about what a stunning statement this is coming from a Republican Governor of a deep-red state (Donald Trump got 68% of the vote here, more than 3x Hillary Clinton's 22%, while the state legislature is held by Republicans 26:4 in the Senate and 51:9 in the House).
Ah, well. I guess the 22,000 Wyomingites (?) who'd be eligible for Medicaid if it was expanded will have to either move out of state or wait for a sea change in the state legislature…
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UPDATE: There seems to be some confusion about Mead’s past views on the ACA, so to clear that up:
November 2014:
With a plan released Wednesday by the administration of Gov. Matt Mead, a Republican, Wyoming has become the latest state seeking to expand Medicaid.
The plan would provide Medicaid coverage to an additional 18,000 low-income people, according to the state’s health department. If it wins federal and state legislative approval, Wyoming will join 27 states that have expanded the program under the Affordable Care Act, including nine with Republican leadership.
March 2015:
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) is no fan of the Affordable Care Act. He supported the first Supreme Court case seeking to repeal the law, and he claimed that the law is “unconstitutional.” And yet, at a news conference last week, Mead echoed many of the Justice Department’s warnings regarding what will happen if the justices side with a new case seeking to gut the law. Indeed, according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, Mead “hopes the court will reject the case and uphold the law.”
...In his press conference, Mead worried about the chaos that would result from a decision that allowed all of this to happen. “If on June 30, if that’s when the case comes down, and they say no more subsidies for federal exchanges … it is going to cause a lot of turmoil,” he warned, adding that his home state of Wyoming “will be scrambling” if the King plaintiffs win their case.
Basically, Mead’s take in the past has been similar to that of a few other GOP governors like MI’s Rick Snyder and OH’s John Kasich: They don’t like the ACA in general, but were all for the Medicaid expansion portion of it because it floods their states with hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money.
What makes today’s quote by Mead so significant is that he’s no longer trashing the rest of the ACA either—he’s gone from:
“THE ACA SUCKS EXCEPT FOR MEDICAID EXPANSION”
to
“THE ACA NEEDS SOME WORK BUT ISN’T BAD OVERALL.”
That’s still a major shift in attitude.