Medicaid Expansion To Poorest Southerners Denied By Republicans

 From the Huffington Post courtesy of a facebook friend:

States that refuse to cover more poor people will do so despite the fact that Uncle Sam will pick up most of the tab. From 2014 to 2016, the federal government will pay 100 percent of the cost of covering newly eligible people, after which the share will gradually go down to 90 percent in 2022 and later years.

Even that small share is more than some states are willing to bear, considering that Medicaid eats up more and more of state budgets every year. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission projects the expansion would cost the state $15.6 billion over a decade. The Urban Institute contends estimates like these are off the mark because they assume too many people will sign up, and don't consider how much states will save by scaling back programs currently serving the poor, however. According to the institute's analysis, the net cost to all states for expanding Medicaid is just $14 billion over the first six years.

But money isn't the only reason states may forgo the Medicaid expansion. Texas' Perry and other Republicans object what they see as to federal encroachment, on principle. Meanwhile, governors may try to extract concessions from the Obama administration on other issues, such as increasing costs paid by Medicaid recipients, in exchange for expanding the program.

More here.

So they're just being dicks.

Seriously.  This is a damned good deal.  And I'm not simply talking about the altruism and social responsibility: uninsured people do, indeed, get medical care, but necessarily wait until their health issues are acute, when it costs a lot more, and then hospitals get stuck with the bill.  Indeed, I've heard more than a couple of pundits asserting matter-of-factly that these asshole states will ultimately give in simply because they have to, simply because their in-state health care providers will demand it.  This Medicaid expansion is good for local health care economies, an investment in the overall system that lowers overall costs for everybody, which also makes it good for state economies in general.  And the cost to state tax payers is chump change.

So they're just being dicks.  Fucking over both hospitals and the poor because of ideology.  Or something.  But that's where the Republican Party is in the twenty first century: extremism in the defense of capitalism is not a vice.  And the real irony is that this would help capitalism!  Of course, I keep forgetting: conservatives long ago dispensed with irony.  Good thing they just got smacked down, or we'd be seeing much more of this shit.

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