Alaska governor pushes to expand Medicaid program for the poor

[July 16, 2015]  By Steve Quinn

JUNEAU, Alaska (Reuters) - Alaska Governor Bill Walker is set to announce on Thursday plans to expand the Medicaid health program for the poor, which would bring coverage to more than 40,000 uninsured residents.

Walker, an independent, has already had several expansion efforts blocked by the Republican-led state legislature since he took office after winning the November 2014 election.

The governor's office said Walker would lay out details of the plan on Thursday.

"He is still weighing his options whether to do it through legislation or do it on his own," spokeswoman Katie Marquette said.

President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reform law, the Affordable Care Act, envisions major expansions to the Medicaid program.

About 20 U.S. states, many Republican-controlled, have rejected that part of the law, according to Kaiser Family Foundation figures. Without expansion, 6.9 million low-income Americans will not get Medicaid assistance, the foundation said.

Political divides have stalled the expansion of Medicaid coverage in states concentrated in the South and central West.

In total, Alaska and other states that have opted out of Obamacare's Medicaid expansion have turned down $472.1 billion in federal funds that would have been used for that purpose from 2014 through 2024, Kaiser said.

Some state lawmakers have said Alaska should not risk the possibility the federal government would pull the program and leave the state committed to something it cannot afford. They also have said Alaska needs to fix its current Medicaid system before it is expanded.

"It's not the time to dump tens of thousands of people into that system," said Republican state Senator Pete Kelly. "We've got a system that's broken."

Walker tried in January to include funding in the current fiscal year's budget for an expansion. Lawmakers removed the funding, saying it required a separate bill.

Walker then introduced a bill in mid-March to expand coverage, but legislators said the current system needed an overhaul, and the proposal stalled after preliminary hearings.

The debate over Medicaid expansion provisions drove a wedge in budget talks that threatened a partial government shutdown.

The current budget contained language that blocked Walker from accepting more than $130 million in federal funds, but the lawyers for the state and legislature said those provisions were unconstitutional.

(Additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by David Bailey and Peter Cooney)

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