Gov. Walker announces unilateral Medicaid expansion.
FAIRBANKS — In the biggest event since his inauguration, Gov. Bill Walker announced Thursday he’s unilaterally accepted Medicaid expansion.
In a packed news conference held in Anchorage and flanked by a retinue of government officials and supportive healthcare workers, Walker said 40,000 more Alaskans will have access to Medicaid by Sept. 1.
“Today, Alaska becomes the 30th state to accept the benefits of Medicaid expansion,” the independent governor said to nearly 30 seconds of applause and cheering from the audience.
Medicaid expansion was core to Walker’s candidacy for office, and he had promised to set the wheels in motion to accept the federal provision of the Affordable Care Act on his first day of office.
Walker didn’t take this executive action on his first day of office, opting to engage the Legislature on the change. To that end, he brought in Valerie Davidson as the state’s head of the Department of Health and Social Services.
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http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/walker-announces-unilateral-plan-for-medicaid-expansion/article_af870824-2bfd-11e5-acc6-b38720f26747.html
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He just became my favorite AK governor of all time.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I don't know what it's like to live in a deep red state 
as it seems. Most elections come out about 60-40 in favor of Republicans, but there are more people here registered as independent, nondeclared or "other" than Democrats and Republicans combined. In a lot of ways Alaska is progressive - we've had noncriminalized marijuana since 1975, no death penalty, access to abortions (although a parental notification measure was passed a few years ago), passed civil rights legislation before the national civil rights acts, and Anchorage is one of the most diverse cities in the country, which surprises a lot of people. http://www.adn.com/article/20150523/anchorage-public-schools-lead-nation-diversity
I love it here in spite of the politics. I'm actually kind of hopeful that with the decline in the oil industry the Texas and Oklahoma oil men here will go back where they came from and take their southern attitudes with them.
Have you ever visited?
