Collective Conscious

Is every deal just part of the path to true pub­lic health fund­ing (Politico)?

Sen. Tom Harkin sug­gested the Nebraska Demo­c­rat did the other 99 sen­a­tors a favor because the fed­eral gov­ern­ment is pay­ing for the entire Med­ic­aid expan­sion through 2017 for every state.

“In 2017, as you know, when we have to start phas­ing back from 100 per­cent, and going down to 98 per­cent, they are going to say, ‘Wait, there is one state that stays at 100?’ And every gov­er­nor in the coun­try is going to say, ‘Why doesn’t our state stay there?’” Harkin said. “When you look at it, I thought well, god, good, it is going to be the impe­tus for all the states to stay at 100 per­cent. So he might have done all of us a favor.”

We would do well to hope so.