MA and ALL "do gooder" states will get the extra Medicaid in the current bill

The bill released yesterday would give Massachusetts a big boost in Medicaid assistance to help pay for insurance coverage for lower-income people, sending an additional $2 billion to the state over the next ten years.

The provision, which would compensate all states for covering more Medicaid patients, would send even more additional money to the Bay State than a Senate-approved “special deal’’ that Obama insisted be removed. The Senate deal would have granted Massachusetts $500 million over three years, with no guarantee of extra assistance after that.

“This is a huge deal,’’ Senator John F. Kerry said in an interview. “This is not a special deal for Massachusetts. What it is, is a fix that is going to take place across the country,’’ said Kerry, who has been negotiating with the White House and colleagues on the Medicaid issue throughout the process.
<snip - and they really did fix the excise plan >
The House bill would include a tax on high-end, so-called Cadillac health insurance plans, but it raises the threshold to plans costing more than $10,200 a year for individuals and $27,500 for families. Pelosi said the new formula made it a “Platinum Rolls Royce tax.’’ It also would not begin until 2018. The AFL-CIO, which had fought the concept of taxing Cadillac plans for months, said yesterday that it supported the new plan.