While many states have refused to set up health insurance exchanges, resistance to the Obamacare Medicaid expansion appears to be crumbling. I previously wrote about Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s decision to proceed with the expansion. And now Ohio’s John Kasich, another Tea Party favorite, has declared his own support for a Medicaid expansion. Not wanting to feel left out, Michigan’s Rick Snyder embraced an expansion as well.
These governors deserve some praise for placing the welfare of their constituents above political ideology. But their change of heart occurred only after an electoral drubbing for Republicans. Would they have been as willing to advocate for a Medicaid expansion if Romney occupied the White House? Probably not. These governors discovered pragmatism only after political defeat. That’s not how good governance should work. We shouldn’t have to endure nearly three years of paranoid hysterics before political leaders can come to their senses and do the right thing. I’m glad and relieved that low-income people in these states will have health coverage, but it shouldn’t have been such a slog to reach this point.
