Charlie Dent hopes Senate gets Medicaid right

May 06--As House Republicans were crafting a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, Lehigh Valley Congressman Charlie Dent repeatedly voiced concerns about its effect on Medicaid recipients in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania added 700,000 low-income, disabled and elderly residents to its roles under Obamacare, one of 31 states to expand Medicaid coverage under the federal health plan's generous subsidies. The House bill that passed Thursday cuts federal support to Medicaid by billions over the next decade, threatening that expansion.

Dent, a Republican, disagreed with his colleagues' approach, which he said would shift health care costs to states with too little flexibility for states to manage that change. He voted no.

But Dent sees a different fate for Medicaid expansion now that the debate on overhauling Obamacare has moved to the Senate.

"I know some of the concerns I've had about the Medicaid provisions that were ignored in the House will be seriously considered in the Senate," Dent said. "They'll be seriously considered."

The Republican-controlled Senate is expected to start over on health care, working on its own version instead of tweaking what House Republicans sent over.

And Medicaid is expected to be a key issue in that debate. Four Republican senators -- Rob Portman of Ohio, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia -- took issue with the House Republicans' approach before the bill had even been formally released.

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