Arizona Sen. John McCain has been barking about "regular order" ever since he cast the fatal vote for the GOP's ill-conceived "skinny" repeal, and he hasn't been any less vocal about the nonexistent process that birthed Graham-Cassidy. But now a report from staffers who work for the state’s Republican-controlled legislature shows that the new bill would cut off a third of the state's federal health funding and strip tens of thousands of health care. Howard Fischer of Arizona's Capitol Media Services writes:
The analysis released late Thursday by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee shows the state now gets about $3.8 billion in federal dollars for Medicaid expansion and the health insurance exchange. That is expected to grow to $4.9 billion by 2020.
Under the Graham-Cassidy health-care bill, the report says, the state would get $3.2 billion in 2020.
That $1.7 billion difference — a 35 percent change compared to current law — could affect the approximately 80,000 Arizonans now getting care under a federally funded expanded Medicaid program.
That appears to be just the beginning of the train wreck for Arizona, where laws requiring the state to provide coverage for more people could be triggered by the loss in federal funding. Despite the financial blow, the state's Republican governor, Doug Ducey, is sticking by his endorsement of the healthcare repeal bill. He's apparently excited about being able to cut off money the state contributes to provide health care for American Indians.
Christina Corieri, the governor’s health policy adviser, said one of those provisions would free the state of its financial obligations to share the cost when Native Americans get care at non-Indian Health Services facilities. Corieri said she could not say what that would save Arizona other than “it’s a very large number.”
The state’s other U.S. senator, Jeff Flake, is still entirely undeterred by the health toll and budget woes the bill would inflict on the state.
Appearing Wednesday on CBS’s “The Late Show,” Flake told host Stephen Colbert he sees it as “letting those at the local level run it better.”
Great—we’re gonna blindfold the locals and tie one hand behind their backs, but they’ll be driving the train, all right.