Beebe to meet with Sebelius over Medicaid expansion

Gov. Mike Beebe will meet with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius around mid-afternoon today in Washington, D.C., to discuss ideas related to Medicaid expansion.

The Affordable Care Act leaves it up to states to decide whether they want to enlarge the rolls of their Medicaid programs to include those who earn up to 138 percent of the poverty level, or $15,415.

So far, 22 states have decided they will expand Medicaid; 17 have balked at expansion.

The rest, like Arkansas, are still undecided, according to Avalere Health LLC, a health-care consulting firm.

The federal government has promised to pay the full cost of expansion until 2017. By 2020, states would shoulder 10 percent of the costs.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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