In Bold Move, Alaska's Governor Stands Up to Chamber of Commerce, AFN, and Obama, Says No to Medicaid Expansion

Photo Credit: AP/Mark ThiessenAlaska Gov. Sean Parnell (R) said Friday his state will not expand Medicaid under President Obama’s signature health-care law after a report estimated it would cost the state about $200 million over seven years.

“I believe a costly Medicaid expansion, especially on top of the broken Obamacare system, is a hot mess,” Parnell said at a news conference on Friday. “The bottom line is: Obamacare failed to launch, is failing to deliver on its promises, and remains in disarray. We simply cannot bail out this failed experiment by expanding Medicaid.”

Groups ranging from the Alaska Chamber of Commerce to the Alaska Federation of Natives and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium had pushed Parnell to move toward expanding Medicaid. But Parnell, who is seeking reelection in 2014, won praise from state Republicans, who oppose expansion.

Expanding Medicaid in Alaska would have made about 40,000 residents with an income of 138 percent of the federal poverty level or less eligible for coverage. The federal government would have initially provided 100 percent of the costs of an expansion, dropping to 90 percent by 2020.

But the federal government would have covered more of the costs in Alaska than in other states, because the federal government covers 100 percent of the costs for Native Americans in Alaska, according to the Anchorage Daily News. About 17,000 of the 40,000 who would have been eligible under the expansion are Alaska Natives.

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