{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://sablan.house.gov/republicans-want-cut-insular-medicaid", "Republicans want to cut insular Medicaid", "2016-01-11", "2016", "2016-01", "Independent", "Senate", "MP", "Gregorio Sablan", "S001177", "sablan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Republicans want to cut insular Medicaid                                            \n              Jan 10, 2016      \t\t        \t    \n      \t            \n                    \n                                            \n          \n        \n        \n            \n    \n  \n    \n    \n    President Obama vetoed on Friday Republican legislation that cut Medicaid funding for the Northern Mariana Islands by an estimated $26 million. Medicaid for the other insular areas  American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands  would also have been cut.\nThe vetoed bill passed the House this week with Republicans all voting to cut insular Medicaid funding, Democrats all voting against it. I worked very hard to get that money into the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. It increased NMI Medicaid from about $50 million to $158 million through the period ending in 2019  a three-fold jump.\nThat money has been essential to keeping the Commonwealth Health Center open after the Commonwealth government took away its local funding. Health Center executive officer Esther Muna told the Saipan Tribune the Republican bill would be devastating for our people, the hospital and the entire health care system.\nGovernor Ralph Torres echoed that concern. To reduce the federal funding for this important program that provides for lower-income households in the CNMI is a disservice to the disproportionate amount of the population living under the federal poverty guidelines, the Governor said. I agree with the Governor and thank President Obama for his action.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://sablan.house.gov/republicans-want-cut-insular-medicaid"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6550028920173645, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}