Year: 2013

Alaska Medicaid Expansion: Don’t Do It

When the U.S. Supreme Court gave the green light to Obamacare, it struck down the power of the federal government to force states to expand their Medicaid programs. As it was passed by Congress, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), mandated that all states expand Medicaid coverage to include those earning income up to 138% of the federal poverty level. If any state refused to do so, the federal government could take away all federal Medicaid funding, even the Medicaid funding that existed prior to the passage of the ACA. The Court ruled that this component of the ACA exceeded the authority of the federal government and struck it down because that portion of the law constituted an undue coercion on sovereign states to comply with the wishes of the centralized federal government.