Medicaid expansion is not good because ...

[Mass]

some of those people were already eligible in Medicaid and did not know it?

This is the hilarious reason some GOPers have to discount the expansion.

[Mnemosyne]

1. I am in PA, no expansion yet. I have too much in 'assets' for Medicaid here and too little

income for the federal exchange subsidies.

My income is $289 per month and I am supposed to pay $254 for the crap insurance that I could not afford to use anyway.

PA sucks. Guess I'll be paying a fine.

[subterranean]

3. Don't worry about the fine.

With that income, you will definitely be exempt from paying the fine.

It's unfortunate that the law makes no provision for people in your situation because lawmakers did not foresee that so many Republican states would opt out of the Medicaid expansion, which the Supreme Court decision allowed them to do. Hopefully something will be done about that in the future, when PA elects a Democratic governor and/or we get a majority in the House of Representatives.

[Mnemosyne]

6. There are so many people in my area that are in the same situation, but they keep voting for

tea bagger candidates.

It's been very cold here the last few days and all I keep hearing when out and about is, "Global warming is a hoax, look how cold it is!". I gave up trying to educate them long ago.

[LoveIsNow]

2. Not quite.

It's that those who are already eligible will be paid for at the standard matching rates (different in each state, but the federal government pays about half), whereas those who are newly eligible are paid for 90% by the federal government and 10% by the state. Therefore, if a state has a lot of people eligible for Medicaid who aren't registered, there is a large hidden cost to the state government in expanding Medicaid and having a bunch of new people applying, perhaps finding out that they had been eligible all along.

However, these already-eligible people are discovering their eligibility on the exchanges, which all states have, so it doesn't matter whether or not a state expands Medicaid; they will still face the costs of increased enrollment in traditional Medicaid. Therefore, it shouldn't affect a state's decision.

[Bandit]

5. Not quite, The Feds pay 100% for the first three years and then they pay 90%

After three years there should be enough savings for the states to begin picking up their share without much problem. The more people are able to see a doctor and get preventive care the less money will be laid out later for more major problems.

[Neoma]

4. My friend didn't know what medicaid was.

Yay for telling her.