Benjamin Franklin gets credit for saying, “Justice is not served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”
You are probably already outraged if you’re reading on this website. This section is for material that gives us a reason to laugh, because even with the worst of times, we need to laugh. Or the item may be something that seems too sad or too strange to be true — but true it is.
DailyAdvance, Eliz.City: Misleading mailers on MCD Exp & candidate
Does Democratic state Senate candidate Brownie Futrell want to shortchange public schools and veterans so layabouts have health insurance?
That's the charge from political mailers recently popping up around state Senate District 1, where Futrell, of Beaufort County, is challenging Sen. Bill Cook, a Republican and fellow Beaufort resident. Sent out by the N.C. Republican Party, the mailers allege Futrell “supports Hillary Clinton's plan to give single, able-bodied young men who won't work 'free' healthcare funded by taxpayers.” The mailers warn about the costs of supporting the “Clinton-Futrell plan for free healthcare.” Depending on the mailers, some state the “Clinton-Futrell plan” means “we won't have money to invest in our schools” or “we won't have the money to fix our veterans' health care system.”
Insurers Endorse Commercial Managed Care for Medicaid (Reform, not Expansion, yet)
Despite the *.org, this is commercially presented by several insurers: Aetna, Amerigroup, AmeriHealth Caritas, UnitedHealth Group and WellCare.
There is no concealment (see the about page) of the funding or the intent.
Medicaid Managed Care
- 39 states offer managed care to at least a portion of their Medicaid population
- Nationally, a majority of Medicaid beneficiaries are in Managed Care programs
- More than 90% of Medicaid patients live in a state with Managed Care
Sen.Pres. ProTem Berger: MCD Expansion “no good case”
Another big question facing policymakers is whether to expand the state’s Medicaid program. Some previously uninterested Republican-led states across the country are now joining or expressing interest because it comes with millions and millions of federal dollars every year.
Governor McCrory has said he’s considering it, but Berger is pretty clear on how he feels:
"The issue of Medicaid expansion is one that we’ve answered time and time again, and I don’t see that the answer is any different at this point," said Berger. "There is in my view no good case that can be made that Medicaid expansion is the right thing for us to do in North Carolina."
NC Senate’s Maj. Leader intentionally confuses MCD Expansion
Maybe it's not intentional, but even astronomers can usually remember to distinguish Inflation from Expansion .
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Medicaid is a contentious topic. McCrory likely has a battle looming with the Senate. He said the word "Medicaid" only once.
Republican Senator Harry Brown is the majority leader. He said the distinction between reform and expansion is key.
"To me and a lot of people in the legislature expansion has already happened. Our budget has gone from two billion to four billion and if that’s not expansion I don’t know what is. I think reform is important moving forward, because we can’t sustain that kind of growth," he explained.
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