GOP Governors Say Health Care Reform Does Not Fit All States

By Anna Cameron

Governors Gary Herbert (R-Utah), Deval Patrick (D-Mass.) and Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) explained to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Tuesday how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is affecting Medicaid and healthcare reform in their respective states.

Though Patrick defended the PPACA, he emphasized the necessity of a sustained commitment to reducing the cost of health care nation-wide. Noting that the government of Massachusetts continues to work hard to reduce system costs, Patrick praised the PPACA for providing several helpful tools utilized to facilitate the process.

“The Affordable Care Act actually supports our efforts to bring down costs. We are using the authority of the national reform to develop guidelines and incentives,” said Patrick. “[It] is helping us coordinate care for individuals who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare and thereby bring cost savings to the Medicare program.”

As a result of its market-based, hybrid system similar to that of the Affordable Care Act, Massachusetts provides more than 98 percent of its residents with coverage, including 99.8 percent of its children.

Governors Herbert and Barbour remained disenfranchised with the federal requirements instituted by the PPACA, reiterating their shared belief that “what is good for one state, isn’t necessarily good for another.”

“Different states have different problems [and] ideas,” Barbour told the Committee. “While you may not believe this,…we love our constituents just as much as [you] do and we want to do right for them. But we want to do what we can afford and sustain.

Proposing greater flexibility in Medicaid management, Barbour and Herbert emphasized the program cuts and tax hikes that would occur in their states based on the rising costs they expect to result from PPACA provisions. Herbert referred to the current relationship between the states and the federal government as “a partnership that is one sided and puts the states in a subservient role.”

“I emphasize that real health care reform…will arise from the states, the laboratories of democracy, not from the ‘one size fits all’ approach proposed by the federal government,” Herbert said.