-
GOP Split over Medicaid Imperils Obamacare Plans Politico by Burgess Everett, Rachael Bade and Racha Pradhan—Top GOP lawmakers and President Donald Trump are coalescing around a plan to turn Medicaid over to the states as part of their Obamacare replacement. But the push is already driving a wedge between congressional Republicans and could gum up the repeal process altogether. Conservatives have long called for block-granting Medicaid, which would cap spending and give states direct control over the program that provides health care coverage for low-income Americans. That goal is finally within reach now that Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House. But divisions over how to do it are already causing tension. At the crux of the matter is an impossible task set forth by Trump: In recent interviews he has said he wants to block-grant Medicaid funding to the states but also ensure the roughly 11 million people who received coverage under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion do not lose it.