The Republican-controlled House is poised to strip funding to expand the Medicaid health insurance program from Gov. Bill Walker’s budget, the first shot in what’s expected to be a contentious debate over one of Walker’s central campaign planks.
The Walker administration says expanding Medicaid would give more than 40,000 low-income, uninsured Alaskans access to health coverage, bring to the state more than $1 billion in federal spending over the next six years, and reduce annual state spending by millions of dollars — even in a few years from now, when the federal government’s contribution to the expanded program scales back to 90 percent from full coverage.
In a news conference Thursday morning, Republican legislators said they want Walker to introduce a standalone Medicaid bill as a substitute for his current proposal, which would expand the program through changes to the state operating budget. Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, dismissed the projected savings by the Walker administration as “gratuitous assertions.” “I’m very concerned that those claims can be substantiated,” Hawker said.
Those comments come in advance of a Friday morning committee meeting in which Republican leaders are expected to strip money tied to Medicaid expansion from the health department budget submitted by the governor.
In a phone interview afterward, Rep. Cathy Munoz, R-Juneau, stressed that the Republicans’ demands weren’t politically motivated. She cited legislators’ request last year that Republican Gov. Sean Parnell submit a standalone bill to enact a measure related to the state pension system that he’d originally proposed in his budget. “This is one of the governor’s priorities, one of the key things he campaigned on,” Munoz said. “And I think asking the governor to lead on a piece of legislation is very important.”
Walker’s legislative director, Darwin Peterson, said in an interview this week that the governor has no intention of doing so.
Via adn.com
image credit alaskapublic.org
