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LINCOLN, NE – This November, Nebraskans will vote on Ballot Initiative 427, a proposal to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. Last week in Lincoln, Americans for Prosperity-Nebraska (AFP-NE) participated in a debate against State Senator Adam Morfeld and provided testimony at the Secretary of State’s public hearing on Medicaid expansion. These event in Lincoln and AFP’s phone bank in Omaha are among those that received local and national media coverage. Below are excerpts from the pieces. PBS: Will conservative Nebraska vote to expand Medicaid?
PBS: Will conservative Nebraska vote to expand Medicaid?
Nebraskans will vote in November on whether to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The state’s Republican legislature and governors have refused to expand Medicaid after states were given that option in 2012 by the Supreme Court. The ballot initiative, modeled after Maine’s 2016 ballot measure, would expand coverage for an estimated 90,000 Nebraskans. Hari Sreenivasan reports.
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HARI SREENIVASAN:
About 10 miles away it’s a similar scene, but the message is very different.
AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY NEBRASKA VOLUNTEER:
We would strongly encourage you to vote “no” on ballot Initiative 427.
HARI SREENIVASAN:
The Nebraska chapter of the conservative political group, Americans For Prosperity, or AFP, has gathered about two dozen volunteers to encourage voters to reject the ballot measure.
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JESSICA SHELBURN:
When you really truly start to look at the numbers you realize that there’s no way we can afford it.
HARI SREENIVASAN:
Jessica Shelburn is the state director for AFP Nebraska.
JESSICA SHELBURN:
Medicaid was intended for the most vulnerable in our society, so the elderly, disabled, low-income children, low-income pregnant women. By expanding Medicaid we are risking the resources that we have available for those individuals because we’re going to have to cover potentially 90,000 or more able-bodied working adults.
When you really truly start to look at the numbers you realize that there’s no way we can afford it.
Watch the video here.
Lincoln Journal Star: Medicaid expansion debated in LIBA forum
A state senator and an Americans for Prosperity director in Nebraska, each on different sides of the Medicaid expansion ballot issue, debated Tuesday in front of business owners and members of the Lincoln Independent Business Association.
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But Shelburn said new Medicaid enrollees in Oregon did not show better physical outcomes compared to those who were uninsured. California was sued last year because some people believed care for people enrolled via Medicaid expansion was substandard.
The suit alleged patients had a harder time finding doctors, waited longer for appointments, ended up in the emergency room more often and had their diseases diagnosed later than those in other insurance programs, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“Just because you have a Medicaid card doesn’t mean that you are going to have access to quality health care,” Shelburn said.
Read the full article here.
Nebraska Radio Network: Those for and against Medicaid expansion air opinions at Capitol
A public hearing at the Capitol gave a chance for those both for and against Medicaid expansion to weigh in the ballot measure.
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But, Jessica Shelburn with Americans for Prosperity warned Medicaid expansion hasn’t gone as planned in the 33 states which implemented it.
“Every state that has expanded Medicaid has seen enrollment increase by almost 90% more than what they had anticipated,” according to Shelburn.
Shelburn stated though federal funds are promised, state government must still have to pay upfront costs.
Read the full article here.
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