Scott Brown Shows Openness To the Medicaid Program

Scott Brown campaigns for the US Senate in New Hampshire - USA. He wanted to block President Obama's healthcare plan. Now, he appears to accept some benefits related to the expansion of health insurance for people with low incomes by using Medicaid funds which were approved by New Hampshire's Legislation.

"You can incorporate any of the considerations for those people on Medicaid expansion into a plan that works for us," Brown said Wednesday in Concord, after touring a company that designs, manufactures, and sells medical electronics.

While not actually confirming his support to Obamacare on being questioned by reporters, he voiced concern about Obamacare as he wondered how the Obama administration would be able to fund the expanded healthcare after a 3 year funding.

Republicans feel they would regain control of the Senate after the elections in November due to the "trail of broken promises" by the Obama administration.

Many states agreed to expansion of Medicaid - among them is Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, New Mexico, North Dakota, New Jersey and Michigan. Republicans feel they stand to gain politically due to the debacle of the health care law.

Brown declared his candidacy last month, two weeks after the state became the 26th to agree to use Medicaid money to expand health coverage. "In terms of preexisting conditions, catastrophic coverage's, covering kids - whatever we want to do, we can do it," he said, referring to provisions in the law that forbid insurers from denying coverage to sick people and that allow children to remain on their parents' plan until they are 26. The plan "can include the Medicaid expansion for folks who need that care and coverage," he added.

Brown called the health law the state's number one issue, with a caution that taxes and mandates for businesses were set to increase and that seniors who opted for Medicare Advantage, a managed-care version of Medicare, would see spending on that program cut drastically. He has also felt that the only insurance plan currently offered on the state's insurance exchange excluded many hospitals and providers, which forced patients to drive long distances for care.

Critics agreed that neither the federal nor the state governments could afford all the options and improvements mentioned by Brown without an increase in taxes. "There is no bill that does that," said John McDonough, a Harvard public health professor who advised the Senate when it crafted the health law. "There is no way to achieve the popular without embracing some unpopular positions." "I fail to see a distinction between Romneycare's mandate that everyone purchase health insurance and Obamacare's mandate that everyone purchase insurance," said former New Hampshire state senator Jim Rubens, one of Brown's GOP opponents.

References:

Noah Bierman and Joshua Miller, May 2014

Hannah Punitha (IRDA Licence Number: 2710062)

Source: Medindia