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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Olive Branch on Medicaid Expansion

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013   

DES MOINES, Iowa - An expensive special session of the Legislature may not be needed after all since Governor Terry Branstad has now said he might be open to expanding Medicaid if he can be confident the federal government won't back out on its assurance to pay most of the additional cost.

Anthony Carroll with AARP Iowa thinks this might just be the olive branch necessary to break the year-long legislative logjam over expanding Medicaid to cover more low-income Iowans. He said there are deadlines fast approaching, so decisions about the governor's state-run option or expanding Medicaid have to be made now.

"The most important deadline Iowans care about is: By the end of the year, January 1st, 2014, there is an expectation that everyone either has health care coverage or you pay a penalty for not having coverage," Carrol stated.

He said that is just one reason a deal on health care reform needs to be made this week, before the Legislature adjourns and a special session is called.

"We think it's a sign of progress, but we know there's a long ways to go, and certainly the devil's always in the details of what that deal looks like," he cautioned.

Branstad said his administration is moving forward with the paperwork required by the federal government for the creation of the Healthy Iowa Plan while the debate continues.



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