Ranked-Choice Voting Proves to Be Lightning Rod Issue in Several States

Bills to ban ranked-choice voting are causing passionate debate over a method to cast ballots that some say is fairer and some say is confusing and could lower voter turnout.

Ranked-choice voting allows people to rank the candidates, with “one” being their favorite. The votes are tallied in rounds. After the first round, the candidate with the lowest votes is eliminated. The voter’s second preference is then added to the tally. The process continues until a winner is determined.

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Biden Pushes Inmate Voting with Help from Interest Groups

Inmate

A federal agency is working with left-of-center nonprofits to increase voting among prisoners and former prison inmates under an executive order from President Joe Biden designed to increase election turnout. 

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has partnered with and regularly consults on voting issues with the League of Women Voters, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Campaign Legal Center, and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee. 

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Medicaid Expansions Meant to Stop the Opioid Crisis ‘May Be Making It Worse,’ New Report Finds

Medicaid expansion has failed to prevent the ensuing opioid crisis, with 14 out of the 15 states with the highest overdose rates being expansion states, according to research exclusively shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The research from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) indicates that while Medicaid expansion was intended to combat the opioid crisis, it hasn’t helped and “may be making it worse,” co-authors Michael Greibrock and Sam Adolphsen wrote. Of the states with the lowest overdose rates, half of them are non-expansion states, and another two only recently expanded.

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Commentary: Medicaid Expansion Fails to Deliver on Promises

Medicaid expansion is failing states across the nation according to a recent Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) report. The report found states that have expanded Medicaid have faced more hospital closures than states that haven’t expanded the program. Of course, for years, advocates have claimed that expansion would be a necessary provision for financial health and job security for hospitals. Though, as suspected, data reveals the opposite. More accurately, non-expansion states have seen improved profitability, a larger bed capacity, and increased job growth. 

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Dozens of Hospitals Have Closed in States That Expanded Medicaid, Research Shows

Medicaid expansion has failed to prevent hospital closure, with almost 50 shutting down in expansion states since 2014, according to research given exclusively to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The research from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) indicates that while Medicaid expansion was intended to solve hospitals’ finances and job shortage, its “empty promises” have done the opposite, report author Hayden Dublois wrote. Hospitals instead have had to shut their doors, lost thousands of jobs and racked up substantial losses, amounting to a loss of almost 5,400 beds.

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The Number of Medicaid Recipients Will Soon Top 100 Million U.S Residents: Report

The United States will have 100 million residents on Medicaid in the next 72 days, according to the Foundation for Government Accountability, meaning that nearly one-third of all Americans will be on the program for health care.

Over the past three years, states have been prevented from removing recipients from the program through a federal COVID-19 emergency. Now, the date when states can begin to re-registering recipients when that emergency ends on April 1.

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Obamacare Loophole Allows Medicaid Fraud, Costs Taxpayers, Report Says

The Affordable Care Act mandated that states accept a hospitals’ decision on the eligibility of all able-bodied adults who verbally report their income to be below the Medicaid level, which has led to many fraudulent eligibility claims, according to a report published Monday.

The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) report examined recently released data from state Medicaid agencies. It specifically looked at the government Medicaid funds that were wasted through false hospitals’ presumptive eligibility (HPE) determinations.

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HB 200 Restores Work Requirement to Ohio’s Able-Bodied Food Stamp Recipients

  In 1996 the United States Congress passed welfare reform, which added work requirements for able-bodied adults receiving food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).  Under President Obama in his 2009 stimulus bill, a waiver was created that allows states and local governments to opt out of those work, training and volunteer requirements. State Representative Scott Wiggam (R-Wooster) has introduced House Bill 200 to restore the dignity of work in Ohio.  According the analysis of the bill, “SNAP recipients must meet work-related eligibility requirements to remain (in) the program.”  The requirements for all non-disabled individuals between the ages of 16 and 59, include the following: accepting a job offer registering for work not voluntarily quitting a job or reducing hours worked participating in a state-offered SNAP employment and training program Additional requirements are in place for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs) to obtain benefits with HB 200.  “Individuals between the ages of 18 and 49 who have no dependents and are not disabled…can only receive SNAP benefits for up to three months every three years,” the analysis states.  The only exceptions are if: the ABAWD is working at least 20 hours per week the ABAWD is participating…

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