Obamacare Flexibility Demanded

Governors want to see options before considering Medicaid expansion

The Obama administration is giving states like Indiana a little flexibility in how to expand their Medicaid programs—but nothing like what state officials hoped for after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the health reform law in late June.

The law calls for all states to expand eligibility for their Medicaid programs to include adults earnings as much as 138 percent of the federal poverty limit. Indiana's current limit for adults is just 24 percent of the federal poverty limit.

But the Supreme Court, in its June 28 ruling upholding the law, said the states can opt out of the expansion without losing all federal funding for their Medicaid programs.