“Medicaid” on The Daily Caller

Thirty-six percent of doctors say they are no longer accepting new Medicaid patients due in large part to declining reimbursements, a new national survey has found. (more)

Now that the Supreme Court has concluded hearings on the president’s health law, many states find themselves in a holding pattern, postponing major decisions about the law until they get some constitutional clarity. (more)

It seems like every day America learns about another “unintended consequence” of President Obama’s health care law. Whether it is doubling the price tag, raiding $500 billion from Medicare, assaulting religious liberty, compromising patient privacy or granting special exemptions from the rules to politically connected labor unions and businesses, there is a multitude of reasons to expect the worst from Obamacare — and it is not even fully implemented yet! (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mixing deep cuts to safety-net programs for the poor with politically risky cost curbs for Medicare, Republicans controlling the House unveiled an election-year budget blueprint Tuesday that paints clear campaign differences with President Barack Obama. (more)

Health insurance companies “have no one to blame but themselves,” according to an investigation by iWatch News, which discussed the failing and out-of-date business models of large, investor-held insurance companies. (more)

A group of Republican lawmakers introduced their plan to return more power to the states by combining Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) into a single block grant Wednesday. (more)

The Lone Star state is reminding the Obama administration of its unofficial motto: “Don’t mess with Texas.” (more)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas and a subsidiary of health care giant Johnson & Johnson reached a $158 million settlement in a Medicaid fraud lawsuit Thursday, allowing the drugmaker to pay a fraction of the potential $1 billion in penalties and fines that state officials had initially sought. (more)

One of the biggest political changes that 2011 brought — in large part due to the tea parties and their effect on the 2010 election — is the centrality of the Constitution to our public discourse. Lawmakers and citizens no longer consider simply whether a given bill or policy proposal is a good idea but whether it is constitutional. “Where does the government get the power to do that?” is often critics’ rallying cry. (more)

A major supporter of the president’s health care reform law will be relinquishing his post as head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid to his number two in command after Republicans successfully prevented his confirmation to the post. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just as 55 million Social Security recipients are about to get their first benefit increase in three years, Congress is looking at reducing future raises by adopting a new measure of inflation that also would increase taxes for most families – the biggest impact falling on those with low incomes. (more)

Many commentators have portrayed Texas’s uninsured rate as evidence of Texans’ lack of access to health care. However, the reality is that Texas’s problem is not care but cost. (more)

Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York joined a group of House Democrats and progressive organizations in a rally on Capitol Hill to urge the super committee not to recommend Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefit cuts, arguing that the nation’s $14.9 trillion debt is “not as big a crisis” as the 9.1 percent unemployment rate. (more)

FreedomWorks PAC officially weighed in on the Nebraska Senate race Wednesday, endorsing Republican Don Stenberg. In 2012, Stenberg will be challenging incumbent Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson. (more)

President Barack Obama will use a Rose Garden appearance Monday morning to broadcast his call for a deficit reduction package that would combine $1.5 trillion in various tax increases, $1.1 trillion in savings from the withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and a $320 billion cut from federal medical spending. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is expected to seek a new base tax rate for the wealthy to ensure that millionaires pay at least at the same percentage as middle income taxpayers. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s Republican governors, seeking a voice in Congress’ upcoming debt debate, pushed Tuesday for looser restrictions on how states spend money on health care for poor and disabled Americans. (more)

Those who still believe in our Constitution’s restraints on federal power were rightly delighted by Friday’s 11th Circuit decision striking down the individual mandate in Obama’s health care law. The part of the opinion that deals with the individual mandate is masterful and exhaustive, running to some 89 pages. (more)

Disease does not discriminate, but apparently Medicaid coverage does. (more)

Nearly every day, you hear about the failure of President Obama’s health care law, and rightfully so. You also hear a lot about the state budget crisis. Virtually every state is straining to balance its budget, and in some states the looming threat of bankruptcy is very real. What you don’t hear about is how the health care law is one of the main reasons for the crisis, and that Congress has the power to alleviate it if it listens to governors from both parties and uses common sense. (more)