Why is Medcaid not totally federalized?

[DevotedDemocrat]

I was reading a biography of Nixon. Apparently, in the early '70s, Nixon introduced a healthcare reform plan, part of this plan included provisions for the federalization of Medicaid, and I've read Medicaid is shared between the fed gov and the states...Why wasn't it totally federalized from the beginning, and why has there been no serious attempts since to make it a totally federal program?

[Indy Texas]

Because muh states' rights/federalism/states are laboratories of innovation.

[badgate]

I mean, Watergate. And the whole Nixon resignation and investigations and tapes made Americans more distrustful of the federal government, so even after Nixon left, his proposals were DOA in a Congress that just wanted to somehow get reelected.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Because muh states' rights/federalism/states are laboratories of innovation.

More a case of it bootstrapping on top of existing programs in some states so that not every dollar had to come from the Feds.  With the ramp up in military spending for Vietnam, LBJ couldn't get everything he might have liked to have.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Racism.