LITTLE ROCK — The top Republican in the House says lawmakers are planning to bring in a consultant to look at the state's Medicaid program.
House Majority Leader Bruce Westerman told reporters Monday that the House and Senate were discussing hiring a consultant and hoped to make an announcement later this week. Westerman said the House and Senate planned to use existing funds to hire the consultant, but didn't say which firm they planned on using.
The hire comes as lawmakers are weighing whether to expand Medicaid's eligibility under the federal health care law. Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe supports the expansion, but faces resistance from the Republican-led House and Senate.
Westerman said GOP lawmakers want "another set of eyes" to look at the program.
Comments (3)
Add commentHow hard is it?
The feds pay all of the cost at the beginning and the vast majority when the program is fully implemented. The supreme court ruled that Obamacare is legal but gave states a way to opt out of this provision. Republicans disagreed with that ruling; we know that. But if they decline to participate now to make a political point, they are just cutting off our collective noses to spite our faces.
Well..............
Waa, Waa.......... mean old R's. :)
What Could One Expect?
No Republican wants the middle or small income American to have any kind of gain. As a matter of fact, they want to use the middle and small American income people for their own gain. Just like our sickening Federal Government now. It makes no difference what the President or Senate does to try and help the small American, Congress is going to find some way to block their efforts. Now our state has a Republican House and Senate and neither give a hoot about the small to middle income Arkansans unless they can pad their pockets from any legislation they pass. Beebe has lost his pride in his leadership and appears to have a don't give a s@&$t attitude. I hope after these fiasco terms with the Federal and State Governments that we have an awakening of the people and they get out and vote for people who truly care about America and have some integrity. Not have State Senators who write bills, become afraid they won't pass and re-write them several times only to have them fail in committee. That just demonstrates the knowledge of our elected officials !
Feel good politics
Seems to me that you are missing the point. Politics at the national level is being played by the democrats like a game. They create one crisis after another by failing to address serious problems, then blame republicans for not going along with their favored "fix." They used the Sandy Hook tragedy to immediately introduce feel-good solutions that were tried many years ago and proven to have no effect, and they create new give-away programs by financing them with more debt that our children will eventually have to deal with. It is feel-good politics at its worst, and the real shame of this whole thing is that an uninformed electorate seems to care more about Dr. Drew or The Bachelor than addressing a government that grows more powerful within its borders, and less powerful outside them every day.