IN CASE YOU MISSED IT<\/p>\n
Greenville News: Graham, DeMint defend Haley’s resistance to Obama health-care law
\nWritten by Mary Orndorff Troyan
\nGannett Washington Bureau
\nwww.greenvilleonline.com\/article\/20121129\/NEWS\/311290011\/Graham-DeMint-defend-Haley-s-resistance-Obama-health-care-law <\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 Gov. Nikki Haley\u2019s resistance to the 2010 federal health-care reform law is strategically helpful for members of Congress working to undo President Barack Obama\u2019s signature first-term accomplishment, South Carolina\u2019s Republican senators said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint defended Haley\u2019s refusal to create a health insurance exchange or to extend Medicaid benefits to an additional 344,000 South Carolina residents. Both are options under the Affordable Care Act, which the Supreme Court declared constitutional earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet it be said that South Carolina\u2019s stand on exchanges and Medicaid expansion is going to allow us to revisit Obamacare,\u201d Graham said after meeting in his office with Haley and most other members of the South Carolina congressional delegation.<\/p>\n
DeMint said he hopes Haley\u2019s opposition to the law\u2019s two key pieces is contagious.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy doing this, South Carolina is helping us here bring this back into an open debate because if they don\u2019t change the bill or repeal it, it\u2019s going to fall just because of the way it\u2019s set up,\u201d DeMint said.<\/p>\n
Haley formally notified the federal government two weeks ago the state won\u2019t create its own health care exchange, a marketplace for individuals and small businesses to comparison shop for health insurance plans.<\/p>\n
Fifteen other states also have opted to let the federal government run their exchanges. Five plan to partner with the federal government on exchanges, and 18 are setting up their own, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe federal government can have at it, but what we\u2019ve found right now is that they have no plan and we are perfectly fine with that,\u201d Haley said to reporters in Graham\u2019s office on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n
The comments by Graham and DeMint defending Haley shows Republican resistance to the 2010 law is alive and well on Capitol Hill, despite the GOP\u2019s losses on Nov. 6.<\/p>\n
When the Supreme Court ruled the law constitutional on June 28, it also allowed states to opt out of a provision extending Medicaid coverage to people earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level.<\/p>\n
South Carolina and seven other states have said they won\u2019t expand eligibility, mostly out of concern that it would be too expensive. The federal government would initially cover 100 percent of the cost for all new enrollees, but that would drop to 90 percent in later years.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur state is struggling now to meet the Medicaid match, and if they buy into the Obamacare model, there will be no money left in South Carolina for education or public safety,\u201d Graham said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t expand Medicaid, the whole theory of Obamacare has to be revisited.\u201d<\/p>\n
A new report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured found that if all states expand Medicaid eligibility, South Carolina would spend 7 percent more on the program through 2022, while federal Medicaid spending in the state would go up about 32 percent.<\/p>\n
The number of uninsured people in South Carolina would drop by 57 percent, the report estimated.<\/p>\n
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that repealing the Affordable Care Act is unlikely.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Supreme Court has spoken, the American people have spoken, congressional leaders of both parties have spoken, and we are continuing with implementation,\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n
Rob Godfrey
\nOffice of Gov. Nikki Haley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Greenville News: Graham, DeMint defend Haley’s resistance to Obama health-care law Written by Mary Orndorff Troyan Gannett Washington Bureau www.greenvilleonline.com\/article\/20121129\/NEWS\/311290011\/Graham-DeMint-defend-Haley-s-resistance-Obama-health-care-law WASHINGTON \u2014 Gov. Nikki Haley\u2019s resistance to the 2010 federal health-care reform law is strategically helpful for members of Congress working to undo President Barack Obama\u2019s signature first-term accomplishment, South […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2gEQ0-2jj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8886,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8885\/revisions\/8886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}