GOP Governors Get Millions More In Obama Health Care Grants

[cal04]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/22/gop-governors-get-millions-more-in-obama-health-care-grants_n_826710.html

The Obama administration on Tuesday issued more than $45 million in new grants to various states for the implementation of the president's health care law -- some of which went to governors hostile both to the White House and the law itself.

The Department of Health and Human Services issued the grants as part of the Money Follows the Person program, a component of the Affordable Care Act that encourages states to transition individuals from nursing homes or a separate institution into community-based programs.

The program is relatively non-political, as grants were awarded to states starting under the second Bush administration. But because its re-authorization is part of President Obama's health care overhaul ($2.5 billion was set aside to extend the program from fiscal year 2011 through 2016), continued implementation has taken on a more serious undertone.

The states that requested (and were granted money) include Florida ($4.2 million), whose governor, Rick Scott, has been an outspoken critique of the president's health care package; Mississippi ($1.3 million), whose governor, Haley Barbour, is a potential 2012 candidate; and Minnesota ($13.4 million), whose former governor, potential presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty, has challenged health care's constitutionality.