Another GOP Governor Accepts Medicaid Expansion

Posted by | August 28, 2014 20:12 | Filed under: Contributors Opinion Politics Stuart Shapiro


Republican Governors, unlike their peers in Congress, have to work to help their constituents.  This is particularly true for ones that are up for re-election.  So it should surprise no one that Pennsylvania GOP Governor reached an agreement with HHS to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act:

…the Medicaid expansion has created political complications for Republicans, particularly in swing states. It is broadly popular and the argument against taking all that federal money to cover one’s own constituents is a tough one to make. Multiple GOP Senate candidates  continue to refuse to say whether they oppose allowing the expansion to proceed in their states.  The Republican governors who accepted the expansion are faring better in polls than GOP governors who didn’t.

In Pennsylvania, the Medicaid expansion has solid majority support, and Corbett’s Dem opponent has been hamming him over the lag in accepting it. Corbett had fallen well behind for reelection.

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Copyright 2014 Liberaland
By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.

10 responses to Another GOP Governor Accepts Medicaid Expansion

  1. edmeyer_able August 28th, 2014 at 20:42

    By the end of October republicans and faux gnus will be calling it ROMNEY care.

    • tiredoftea August 28th, 2014 at 21:09

      Much to the Dems chagrin.

  2. edmeyer_able August 28th, 2014 at 20:42

    By the end of October republicans and faux gnus will be calling it ROMNEY care.

    • tiredoftea August 28th, 2014 at 21:09

      Much to the Dems chagrin.

  3. majii August 28th, 2014 at 21:48

    Iirc, Wolfcurrently leads Corbett by @ 25 points. It’s a shame that some people won’t do what they know is right or what they need to do until it’s connected to something they want/need. Corbett played ‘follow the leader’ by joining with GOPTPers in Congress to oppose the ACA, and it has come back to bite him in the ass at the worst possible time in his political career. When they go to the polls to vote in November, I hope the majority of voters in PA remember how he sold them out for his political career, and that he put party over people, thumbed his nose at their concerns, and only acted at the last minute–and only then in a bid to salvage his governorship.

  4. majii August 28th, 2014 at 21:48

    Iirc, Wolfcurrently leads Corbett by @ 25 points. It’s a shame that some people won’t do what they know is right or what they need to do until it’s connected to something they want/need. Corbett played ‘follow the leader’ by joining with GOPTPers in Congress to oppose the ACA, and it has come back to bite him in the ass at the worst possible time in his political career. When they go to the polls to vote in November, I hope the majority of voters in PA remember how he sold them out for his political career, and that he put party over people, thumbed his nose at their concerns, and only acted at the last minute–and only then in a bid to salvage his governorship.

  5. PunkAssPro August 29th, 2014 at 20:55

    I don’t understand how this is a news story. He is a bloody politician. What more matters?

  6. PunkedUrAss August 29th, 2014 at 20:55

    I don’t understand how this is a news story. He is a bloody politician. What more matters?

  7. eddie1247 September 10th, 2014 at 17:03

    Too little too late, an act of desperation for a man that has two chances of being reelected, zero and none. Here’s to our next Governor, Tom Wolf!

  8. eddie1247 September 10th, 2014 at 17:03

    Too little too late, an act of desperation for a man that has two chances of being reelected, zero and none. Here’s to our next Governor, Tom Wolf!

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