
WASHINGTON — The Latest on the Republican effort to end the Obama-era health overhaul and replace it with a new law (all times local):
Sen. John McCain says he won’t vote for the Republican bill repealing the Obama health care law. His statement likely deals a fatal blow to the last-gasp GOP measure in a Senate showdown expected next week.
A study finds this latest GOP effort to end “Obamacare” would take federal dollars away from states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The study says the states including Kansas that didn’t expand Medicaid would initially get more federal dollars under the Republican Graham-Cassidy bill.
The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation study came out Thursday. It estimates the states that didn’t expand Medicaid would get an average of 12 percent more.
The study says states that expanded Medicaid to serve more low-income adults would face a cut of around 11 percent from 2020-2026.
The biggest winners are Kansas, Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, South Dakota, and Tennessee. However, the study says those gains could vanish over time.
The biggest losers, percentage-wise are New York, Oregon, Connecticut, Vermont and Minnesota. California would be the biggest loser in dollars.
A group that represents state officials who administer Medicaid programs is telling Senate Republicans to slow down and rethink the bill.
The board of the National Association of Medicaid Directors says its members are concerned that the Senate is rushing to make major changes in health programs for low-income people — with far-reaching consequences for state budgets that aren’t fully understood.
The group wants Congress to revisit Medicaid changes.