Medicaid Waiver: It Allows the Removal of Medicaid Eligibles from the Medicaid Rosters: the Feds Giveth and the Republican-led States Taketh Away: NYT : Debate in Maine; Wisconsin; AZ

Ah, well, it now becomes so clear: the purpose of the NC Medicaid Waiver is to remove Medicaid recipients from the Medicaid rosters. This takes place as associated with the slip-sliding of eligibility requriements; the lack of health care providers (as is the case regarding Western Highalnds Network LME); and who knows what else they have up their sleeves.

This, at a time when more and more people are going onto Medicaid due to the economy and loss of jobs.
Better come up with a ONE PAYER SYSTEM.
There's a comprehensive article in the NYT this past week which overviews the Medicaid Waiver and its associated with 'Obamacare' or better said, the Affordable Care Act. The more Republican a state is, the more the state is trying to cut the Medicaid rolls.
And there's a WHOLE LOT of comments when you google the title of the article. So, there are lots of entities/ people weighing in, including the Kaiser Foundation, which the health care attorney from Philadelphia advised me last week, was a site to watch re: Medicaid Waiver matters.
Here are some interesting excerpts and here is the URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/us/debate-in-maine-hints-at-medicaid-conflict-after-health-care-ruling.html
(Governor of Maine declares)...."he is planning to cut thousands of people from Maine’s Medicaid rolls, arguing that the recent Supreme Court ruling on the law gives him license to do so......

Federal officials insist that while the ruling allowed states to opt out of a planned expansion of Medicaid, it left intact all other aspects of the law affecting the program......

Ever since the law was enacted in 2010, governors of both parties have complained about its requirement to maintain Medicaid eligibility levels, saying it has hamstrung their efforts to balance budgets during a period of excruciating economic pressures. But the federal government has generally not relented on the so-called maintenance-of-effort requirement.....
Before last month’s ruling, Mr. LePage had planned to seek a federal waiver to remove more than 20,000 people from MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program. But he now says that the ruling made a waiver unnecessary.
“Maine believes the Supreme Court decision confirms that states have the flexibility to manage their Medicaid program without risking the loss of federal funds,” Adrienne Bennett, Mr. LePage’s spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

Dennis G. Smith, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, said the requirement for states to maintain Medicaid eligibility standards was “called into question” as a result of the Supreme Court decision......
Arizona was already operating its Medicaid program under a waiver. The Obama administration allowed the state to change its program, freezing enrollment for childless adults, after the waiver expired last September. In April, the administration allowed Wisconsin to start charging monthly premiums to some Medicaid beneficiaries and to deny coverage to others who had access to affordable employer-sponsored health insurance.......
Several law professors said the Obama administration appeared to be on solid ground in refusing to let states tighten eligibility standards.

“I do not think Maine can do what it wants to do,” said Professor Nicole Huberfeld, an expert on health law at the University of Kentucky....."