White House renews push for Medicaid expansion

White House officials are renewing their push to convince states to expand Medicaid as permitted under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Just 26 states have agreed to expand the health insurance program to families that make up to 138% of the federal poverty threshold.

The White House hosted a call with reporters Thursday with local officials in Louisiana and Florida, where President Barack Obama was scheduled to travel Friday.

About 5 million uninsured Americans who would have qualified for Medicaid under the reform law's expansion will not get coverage because the states where they live chose not to participate, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Louisiana state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson decried what she called the “Jindal gap” in honor of GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal, which has left 265,000 residents without Medicaid coverage. “I deem this unconscionable,” she said. “This fight is far from over.”

Kristin Jacobs, mayor of Broward County, offered a similar view of Florida's refusal to expand Medicaid eligibility. “The idea that they would take this reckless approach, this anti-family approach, is simply wrongheaded,” she said.

The Obama administration is also going to be sending out cabinet officials to events in cities across the country to generate support for the healthcare law, which has been marred by the disastrous rollout of the federal HealthCare.gov website. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will be at one such event in Tampa on Friday.

“It's a full-court press, all hands on deck,” said White House Deputy Senior Adviser David Simas.

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