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There is hope for Iowa’s Medicaid program. Finally, an administrative branch official has publicly acknowledged privatized Medicaid is not working for at least some Iowans. The state may resume directly overseeing health services for seriously disabled people, Department of Human Services director Jerry Foxhoven said. Doing that could rescue them from the cuts in service realized under private managed care companies. Foxhoven should follow through with this idea. It opens the door for the state doing what it really needs to do: reclaim the task of directly making care decisions for all Iowa Medicaid beneficiaries. (9/18)

Conspicuously absence from most commentary arguing that Kansas should expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act is any discussion about the program actually improving the health of recipients. Instead, we are left with terribly materialistic arguments about forgone federal money. Why is it that on the biggest policy questions facing Kansas, such as Medicaid or education, we hear lots about money spent and little about health outcomes or student achievement? (James Franko, 9/19)

Congressional leaders may want to leave the wreckage of this year’s health care reform debacle behind them as they move on to other issues, but the latest Census Bureau report on poverty and health insurance is a good reminder of why Medicaid reform should still be a priority. Legislators may well want to look at individual states again for possible solutions. (Ryan Streeter, 9/18)