Editorial: GOP bragging rings hollow without Medicaid expansion
Monday, Nov. 21, 2022 -- If state Senate leader Phil Berger believes he can take credit for all the advances the state has made - he too must take responsibility for the devastation that has befallen families because they haven't been able to get the critical - and often life-saving - health care they've needed. Expand Medicaid now - no strings attached. Maybe the next time Berger takes to bragging, he won't need to leave "health" off his list.
Posted — Updated“Republicans will continue to champion policies that strengthen our economy, support quality education, and provide for public safety and order,” Berger pledged.
Nowhere in his 600-word litany of partisan Democratic Party bashing and Republican Party chest thumping is the word "health" mentioned. Berger and his allies have repeatedly found ways to block, delay and politically entangle Medicaid expansion.
Berger, after suggesting it would be handled before year’s end, has now pushed back any consideration of Medicaid expansion into the new year. It has already become entangled with unrelated concerns about the certificate of need regulations for hospital expansion. There are indications it will also be tied to concerns about medical debt and perhaps even stricter limitations on access to abortion. Medicaid expansion needs to be enacted, without delay and without any extraneous baggage. This is -- no exaggeration -- a life and death matter.
If Berger believes he can take credit for all the advances the state has made – he too must take responsibility for the devastation that has befallen families because they haven’t been able to get the critical – and often life-saving – health care they’ve needed.
Expand Medicaid now – no strings attached. Maybe the next time Berger takes to bragging, he won’t need to leave “health” off his list.
Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.