'We Can’t Afford It': The Big Lie About Medicaid Expansion

[ProSense]

'We Can’t Afford It': The Big Lie About Medicaid Expansion

Richard Kim

In his letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius rejecting the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, Texas Governor Rick Perry tells a whopper. Expanding Medicaid, he writes, would “threaten even Texas with financial ruin.”

<...>

Rick Perry is not alone. Ever since the Supreme Court allowed states to opt out of the law’s expansion of Medicaid without forfeiting all their Medicaid funding, at least five other Republican governors—led by Tea Party darlings like South Carolina’s Nikki Haley, Florida’s Rick Scott and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal—have summarily refused to implement the expansion on the grounds that their states just can’t afford it. They’re as wrong as Rick Perry. The federal government covers 100 percent of the expansion in 2014 through 2016. In 2017, states begin sharing the cost, paying 5 percent; that share grows to 10 percent in 2020. States are never on the hook for more than 10 percent of the annual cost. To put that in perspective, states currently pay between 25 to 50 percent of current Medicaid’s costs.

<...>



- more -

http://www.thenation.com/blog/168977/we-cant-afford-it-big-lie-about-medicaid-expansion

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. K&R Once again we have to ask, "What the hell is wrong with you people down there"? n/t

[rurallib]

2. same old lies

[ProSense]

3. Yup,

Republicans: We can't afford Medicaid, but we can afford everything from tax cuts for the rich to loopholes for "rent-a-cow."

[rurallib]

6. and always, always money for war.

[Daniel537]

4. When a right-winger says "we can't afford it"

what they usually mean is, "fuck 'em".

[Igel]

5. It's not what's said. It's what's unsaid.

Skit, Part 1:
A: "Did you hear, the government will add a 3rd story to your house, right on top of the 2nd floor. It'll pay 100% of the cost, and pay 90% of the maintenance after the third year."

B: "Not interested. Would cost too much."

A: "Idiot!" Waves hand and walks off.

B: "But my house only has one floor! Do you know what it would cost to add a floor?"

Note that the states that have said "no" all have Medicaid funded at far less than 100% of the population they could extend Medicaid to. Those that have said "yes" already fund near 100% of the eligible population. Most are in between and are crunching the numbers.

Skit, Part 2:
A: "Did you hear, government's going to pay to expand medical care. 100% of the cost for the first 2 years, scaling back to 90% in year 5."

B: "Really? Guaranteed?"

A: "Absolutely. Just like they put in guaranteed cost-cutting measures in Medicare. It's a done deal, written into law."

B: "Sorry, don't think I'm interested."

A: "You're one screwed up fool." Walks off.

B: "But the cost-cutting measures that they guaranteed and wrote into law in 2002 were ignored in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 ... No Congress can bind another Congress with a guarantee!"

It's one thing to not offer Medicaid expansion. It's another thing to offer it and then, if Congress cuts the budget and reneges on the previous Congress' 'guarantee', to withdraw it. Fact: You strongly resent being given something and then losing it; you resent much less strongly if you're promised something and never get it; you barely notice when you don't get something you weren't promised, even when you find out you might have gotten it.

If there's a "Medicaid hole", you'd have the scenario of a poor family getting Medicaid coverage; then getting more income, and losing Medicaid; then, when they make a bit more money, getting coverage again. Think of how that would drive behavior. Think how that would drive politics. Even I don't like that scenario.

[HappyMe]

7. k&r