As President Obama’s healthcare law grows increasingly unpopular with the public, Arizona State Representative Heather Carter continues to insist in her many mailings that, “Governor Brewer’s Medicaid Restoration is NOT Obamacare. The mailings are funded, for the most part, with monies funneled into her campaign from expansion supporters.
Contrary to Carter’s claims, according to the Arizona Legislature’s website, the Medicaid scheme enacted by the AZ legislature in 2013 was an expansion.
Expands the definition of an eligible person, for purposes of AHCCCS eligibility, to include a person whose household’s modified adjusted gross income is more than 100% but equal to or less than 133% of federal poverty guidelines (FPL), effective January 1, 2014 and includes:
● Children under 19 years of years of age and whose family income does not exceed 133% FPL.
● Persons under 26 years of age and who were in the custody of the ADES when the person became eligible.”
An Arizona Central editorial published July 8, 2014, noted that “coverage was restored to those who lost it, and the program was expanded to 133 percent of the federal poverty level.”
The editorial emphasizes the fact that the governor had to turn her back on her fellow Republicans to fight a “pitched battle with members of her own party to win approval to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.”
The AZ Central Editorial Board points out the fact that the Medicaid Expansion is directly tied to Obamacare; otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act.
Whether or not one believes that the Medicaid Expansion and Obamacare are good things or not, the residents of Legislative District 15 believe that voters deserve truth in advertising.
Carter should run on her record, and be honest about it.