While most of us at NCR were breathing a sigh of relief over the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act, the Court's ruling regarding the expansion of Medicaid is troubling. Sort of. On legal grounds, I suspect the Court got it right - the idea that the federal government could withdraw already pledged funds to the states to entice those same states to sign on for the expansion of Medicaid runs counter to the ideas of federalism at the heart of the Constitution.
But, according to this article in Politico, in today's Tea Party-driven GOP, some governors have announced they will not allow their states to participate in the expansion of Medicaid, which is one of the principal vehicles for increasing access to coverage for many working poor families. The USCCB, and local bishops, should step forward and combat this foolishness forcefully. The people who will be affected are the working poor, the people who get up and take the bus to work before most of us brew our morning coffee. These decisions not to participate are not driven by the concerns the USCCB raised about the ACA. They should say so, and say so loudly.
