Aaron Carroll, writing at the Incidental Economist, has a post entitled Arkansas and Indiana, offering some thoughts on Gov. Pence’s apparent refusal to undertake the Medicaid expansion unless the expansion uses the Healthy Indiana Program. Per Carroll, HIP doesn’t meet the Affordable Care Act standards because it has annual and lifetime caps and also because it has no dental, vision, or maternity benefits. Additionally, using HIP for the state’s Medicaid expansion would cost 44% more per person.
So, as he points out, it makes little sense to argue on the one hand that expanding Medicaid is just too darn expensive but, on the other hand, say that we’ll do the expansion if we can do it in a way that costs more money.
Best I can tell, nothing Pence has done so far has to do with “sense”. It’s about ensuring that Pence can try to run for President.
Pence is far too stupid to have any chance of winning even the republican nomination.
Not even close.
Good grief.
Come think of it, if you count the score, he’s already weighed down with a lot of baggage. I’m no Pence expert, but I can’t think of anything the guy has done that people would consider a great positive accomplishment. He won the governorship, but just barely, and things aren’t getting any better. His campaign icon could be an empty suit.
Agree with Joe…..I think in the long run, this will be a decision that Pence the Ideologue will regret as it will clearly become more and more evident that his stubborn attitude to Hoosiers generally, and goes against the state’s economic interests. Don’t you think that the other Republican governors who are going along with the ACA have figured this out?
I don’t think “stubborn” is an attribute that Hoosiers will penalize a politician for. I think it’s more likely they get in trouble for trying to change things.
Actually the studies have shown HIP is cheaper, by about $50 million.
Dr. Carroll disagrees:
Pence seems determined to be Mitch Daniels, Jr. Not sure how that would help Pence’s presidential prospects, given that the original Mitch Daniels could not generate much interest or name recognition among Republican voters outside Indiana.
Eh, never say never, but I think narrowly getting elected governor in Indiana, in a Republican year, while trailing the slate, pretty much eliminated Mike Pence’s opportunity to cash in on a presidential run, which, prior to November, was “zero”.
As far as being Daniels, Jr., what choice did he have? It’s as if Benedict had decided to be the next John XXIII when the Church had practically canonized JP II while he was still breathing.