Posted on 11/24/2013 5:32:03 AM PST by Kaslin
The latest issue roiling the Republican Party is Medicaid, specifically whether Republican governors should expand Medicaid with federal Affordable Care Act money -- especially if they want to be on the GOP national ticket in 2016.
It's a hot issue because Obamacare allows states to expand their pool of eligible Medicaid recipients. For the first three years, Washington promises to pay 100 percent of the freight for new enrollees; later, federal support would shrink to 90 percent. (Washington covers about half the cost of today's pre-ACA enrollees.)
It's as free as free money gets in this country -- nearly $1 trillion over 10 years, which leaves Republican governors with a dilemma. To snatch or to spurn, that is the question.
More than 20 states with a Republican governor or legislature have refused the new Medicaid scheme. Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal lead the pack of GOP guvs who have said no. Jindal said the so-called free Medicaid money "would cost Louisiana taxpayers up to $1.7 billion over the next 10 years and move nearly 250,000 Louisianans from private coverage to Medicaid."
Last week, the Club for Growth called out an Idaho congressman for accepting the endorsement of an industry group that supports Medicaid expansion in Idaho. Club spokesman Barney Keller told me the issue isn't exactly a litmus test, but "anyone who thinks that the feds are going to make good on their promises to pay for the Medicaid expansion" is kidding himself.
This month, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Fox News that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could be sorry the Garden State is expanding Medicaid under Obamacare. "I don't think that is going to resonate in the Republican primary," quoth Paul, who himself seems eager to run in 2016.
Christie is in good company. Other GOP governors -- John Kasich of Ohio, Jan Brewer of Arizona and Rick Scott of Florida -- are taking advantage of the Obamacare Medicaid terms.
Sparring with Laura Ingraham on Fox News Channel, Kasich gave an impassioned defense of his decision. It's his job to "bring Ohio money back to Ohio," Kasich said. His constituents pay federal taxes; if he says no to Obamacare dollars, "they're not going to put (the money) in a piggy bank."
And: "It's not like it's cost-free to turn this down."
Kasich played up his brand of compassionate conservatism: "Conservatism means that you help people so they can help themselves and that they can enter into the economic strength of our country." After Kasich went around Ohio's GOP Legislature to add 275,000 to his state's Medicaid rolls, his anemic poll numbers increased.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker split the baby. He proposes moving 77,500 people off Medicaid and into private subsidized plans. He also would enroll new people into Medicaid with ACA dollars. "Some governors chose not to take the expansion. Some chose to take it," Walker told Politico. "I wanted to find a way to reduce the number of people who were uninsured and still do something in a way that did not put my taxpayers on the hook."
Given problems Cheeseheads are having signing on to the federal exchanges, Walker has put his "smarter, simpler and better" plan on hold.
I don't see the Obamacare Medicaid money as free. In three years, states will have to pay up. Washington could cut federal payouts. Also, seeing as states underpay providers, more Medicaid recipients could mean longer waits to see a doctor. Still, a governor is elected not to run for the White House but to do what's best for his state. How can groups such as the Club for Growth expect elected officials to say no to what their constituents see as free money?
"That's why the left loves Medicaid," responded health care wonk Michael F. Cannon of the libertarian Cato Institute. "It's socialism on stilts. You've got a program where each side" -- state and federal -- "contributes half the money (and) each side has enormous incentive to expand it." If there's fraud or waste, the federal government pays for half of that bad spending -- and all of it for new Obamacare enrollees -- and state politicians reap all the benefits.
Cannon doesn't trust Washington not to cut subsidies tomorrow that it promises today. GOP governors, he warned, beware.
"When this law passed, no one thought there would be this much resistance to the Medicaid expansion," Cannon continued. Though he found it predictable that some GOP governors signed on, "what is amazing is that so many states have said no. That's the story."
Professional Medicaid recipients may have to relocate.
The first one is always free.
Another ominous cog in the Obamacare meat grinder----the inexorable forcing of Grandma/pa onto Medicaid--(like cattle herded single-file onto the narrow ramp---knowing the bolt is coming---but not able to do a thing about it).
Medicaid conveniently groups together the sick and elderly---as Obama's IPAB board of radical Boobamba worshippers sit in judgment.
TRANSLATION Here's Boobamba's Orwellian-speak---the progressive way of saying "Obamacare keeps costs down."
The infamous "Death Panels---are alive and well----but they're not called death panels......for obvious reasons.
The treacherous Obama euphemistically calls his death panel "I-PAB----Individual Payment Advisory Board."
---the I-PAB decides what to pay and who to pay---thus rationing medical care to sick oldsters.
Obama probably learned this trick in Chicago where drug dealers give out "free" samples in order to get future customers addicted to their drugs.
A good Governor understands that they may be reimbursed for 2 or 3 years for all those that sign up for it but then NO MORE FUNDING.........the states are on their own and have to find the money themselves..from what I heard. That will be a major budget issue
Being in NC the full court press is on to target the GOP for not expanding the program.
The MSM is starting to run the sad stories of folks with no medical coverage - and then the bit about the GOP not expanding the program - and as the segment closes the slight frown and shake of the head.
The demo-slimes and only the demo-slimes have ruined health care. Focus on that only.
Kasich is so full of it. Cleveland Clinic laid off a few hundred people, so he did it to expand jobs in the medical field. Brilliant move.....just what OH needs, more people taking advantage of handouts (sarcasm).
There is no such thing as Free money.
Taxes have to pay for Medicaid.
First Federal Taxes will go up then State Taxes will go up.
The only ones benefiting will be the Gimmedats who are always in line for a handout, and of course they will continue to vote for more handouts.
GIMME THAT AGAIN? For the first three years, the feds pay 100 percent of the freight for new enrollees. Later federal payouts would "shrink" to 90 percent.
The feds "say"---It's a bundle of money -- worth nearly $1 trillion over 10 years to the states.
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Funny, not not a single mention of I-PAB.
“For the first three years, Washington promises to pay 100 percent of the freight for new enrollees; later, federal support would shrink to 90 percent.”
Right here is a latch hold for the pubbies. Washington HAS NO MONEY with which to pay ANY PORTION of the “freight”. They have ONLY the MONEY they steal from the working folks of America, and what they print or manufacture out of whole cloth (QE doesn’t stand for Queen Elizabeth).
The pubbies should be ALL OVER THIS, but what do we get from the GOPe? Silence. Crickets. Tacit confirmation of their complicity in the murder of America.
It’s time to take back the country. Calling out EVERY lie, EVERY time, is a good start.
Right and "If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it,;" "If you like your doctor, you can keep him......."
To add the old saw, "I've got some swampland in Florida" or "I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for you....."
The truth here is, as it always has been especially to blacks and minorities, it doesn't matter one whit what DC Democrats give rock solid promises to, they don't mean it.
Now, however, the American people have got a good taste of what blacks especially have seen from the Democrat Party, they tell you great pipe dreams that never come true for the simple fact - they LIE!
Exactly! Do we have governors in our states so stupid that they don't know ALL GOVERNMENT MONEY AT ANY LEVEL COMES FROM TAXPAYERS???
I've have that argument with local government, where the paid planning staff tells them they can get stuff almost free because of all the grant money - those grants STILL come from my taxes! The elected officials get the 'deer in the headlights' look, while the staff glares at me.
I want a governor who understands that there is no free money for government.
ObamaCare Forcing People Into Medicaid
-- snip --
"The system will automatically sign them up for Medicaid, even if they don't want to be on Medicaid," says James Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. "That's what's happening. So a lot of people are getting signed up for Medicaid just by virtue of what their income is."
A case in point is a Virginia family, who asked to remain anonymous, but who came to Fox News with documents that demonstrate an apparent absurdity with Medicaid selection.
The father owns a $5 million house - entirely paid for. His kids attend expensive private schools. He owns three cars, but because he has earned his fortune and has stopped working , and his wife's new start-up business has yet to produce an income stream, he is considered by the Healthcare.gov website to have no income.
-- snip --
There isn't any money, you liberal dolts." The federal government has to borrow 40 cents of every dollar it spends. It has to borrow a dollar of every dollar in new money it spends. This simply can't continue. Anyone who believes that it can is crazy.
It's an interesting niche. Low end service workers (retail and fast food workers) would qualify for expanded - but not the old - Medicaid. So, many would have an incentive to move to Medicaid expansion states. However, the labor market is somewhat efficient. Private sector wages in non-Medicaid expansion states would have to move up in order for those workers to stay in place. Ultimately, states that expand Medicaid are having their minimum- and near-minimum-wage fast food and retail workers subsidized by the federal government, whereas states that don't are losing out on the subsidy. It's a substantial subsidy, relative to total wages, which is why I suspect most businesses that hire at minimum wage would probably be in favor of going with the Medicaid expansion.
What complicates the calculation is that minimum wage workers have relatives. I don’t know the numbers, but suspect that a fair number of these relatives are full-spectrum welfare recipients. If these workers take with them their indigent relatives, then it’s possible that non-Medicaid expansion states will end up ahead, fiscally-speaking, despite the robbing non-expansion states to pay expansion states aspect of the expansion.
Janet Brewer couldn’t wait to expand Medicaid in AZ. Eventually, the Fed subsidy will go away, leaving the state holding the bag, but that’s OK because Brewer will be out of office by then.
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