This Week In The Battle Over Obamacare: Medicaid Wars Ramp Up In Several States

Though Republicans in Congress are pushing a new bill to repeal Obamacare and block-grant Medicaid, it has a slim-to-zero chance of passage this year. The real wars over Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act are still raging on the state level. Trump’s CMS Administrator Seema Verma made three big announcements on Monday: She approved New Hampshire’s bid to become the fourth state to impose Medicaid work requirements, rejected Kansas’ proposal to kick people off of Medicaid after three years, and punted the decision down to individual states on whether Native Americans have to follow the new Medicaid work rules. The Kansas waiver denial is significant, sending the message to other states applying for some kind of lifetime limit on Medicaid — including Arizona, Maine, Wisconsin, and Utah — to slow their roll. Even as CMS approves work requirements, premiums, and other hurdles for enrollees in state Medicaid programs, lifetime limits are apparently a bridge too far. As CMS considers waivers from…