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States Are Running Out Of Excuses To Refuse To Expand Medicaid
States Are Running Out Of Excuses To Refuse To Expand Medicaid
By Tara Culp-Ressler
Accepting Obamacare’s optional Medicaid expansion could be a better financial deal for states than initially predicted, according to new data from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Expanding Medicaid to extend health coverage to additional low-income Americans will cost about a third of what the CBO projected earlier this year, according to the agency’s updated estimates of Obamacare’s financial impact. Back in early February, the CBO estimated that state spending on Medicaid and CHIP would be $70 billion higher over the next decade because of the expansion. Now, that figure has been revised down to $46 billion.
Ultimately, states will only need to spend about 1.6 percent more on their public health insurance programs than they would have spent in the absence of health reform. And that’s before the potential long-term savings from Medicaid expansion — like the benefits of providing increased mental health treatment to low-income people — are factored in.
“Health reform’s Medicaid expansion, which many opponents wrongly claim will cripple state budgets, is an even better deal for states than previously thought,” Edwin Park, the vice president for health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the independent research group that first flagged the revision, noted.
The CBO revised its figure down because the agency predicts that most of the people signing up for Medicaid will be newly eligible under expansion, and the federal government will pick up the cost of their enrollment. States have been worried about what health policy experts call the “woodwork effect” — essentially, as Obamacare enrollment raises people’s awareness about their health options, people who could have signed up for Medicaid before health reform took effect will come out of the woodwork and enroll. States have to pick up a larger portion of the cost for those people. But CBO officials now expect the woodwork effect to be smaller than initially projected, which means states’ costs will also be smaller.
- more -
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/04/25/3430824/states-excuses-medicaid-expansion/
By Tara Culp-Ressler
Accepting Obamacare’s optional Medicaid expansion could be a better financial deal for states than initially predicted, according to new data from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Expanding Medicaid to extend health coverage to additional low-income Americans will cost about a third of what the CBO projected earlier this year, according to the agency’s updated estimates of Obamacare’s financial impact. Back in early February, the CBO estimated that state spending on Medicaid and CHIP would be $70 billion higher over the next decade because of the expansion. Now, that figure has been revised down to $46 billion.
Ultimately, states will only need to spend about 1.6 percent more on their public health insurance programs than they would have spent in the absence of health reform. And that’s before the potential long-term savings from Medicaid expansion — like the benefits of providing increased mental health treatment to low-income people — are factored in.
“Health reform’s Medicaid expansion, which many opponents wrongly claim will cripple state budgets, is an even better deal for states than previously thought,” Edwin Park, the vice president for health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the independent research group that first flagged the revision, noted.
The CBO revised its figure down because the agency predicts that most of the people signing up for Medicaid will be newly eligible under expansion, and the federal government will pick up the cost of their enrollment. States have been worried about what health policy experts call the “woodwork effect” — essentially, as Obamacare enrollment raises people’s awareness about their health options, people who could have signed up for Medicaid before health reform took effect will come out of the woodwork and enroll. States have to pick up a larger portion of the cost for those people. But CBO officials now expect the woodwork effect to be smaller than initially projected, which means states’ costs will also be smaller.
- more -
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/04/25/3430824/states-excuses-medicaid-expansion/
6 replies
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Arkansas Democrats use Medicaid expansion to rally women
by Joan McCarter
Nice message, Arkansas Democrats!
That's Democrats reminding voters, particularly women, that Republican Tom Cotton, who is running for Senate, wants to take their insurance away from them by repealing Obamacare. And, so far, he hasn't put forward for how those 155,567 people, who have coverage through the state's private option Medicaid expansion, will get replacement coverage.
That's a pretty good message for motivating women, and anyone who cares about people having health care, to get to the polls in November.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/24/1294360/-Arkansas-Democrats-use-Medicaid-expansion-to-rally-women
by Joan McCarter
Nice message, Arkansas Democrats!
That's Democrats reminding voters, particularly women, that Republican Tom Cotton, who is running for Senate, wants to take their insurance away from them by repealing Obamacare. And, so far, he hasn't put forward for how those 155,567 people, who have coverage through the state's private option Medicaid expansion, will get replacement coverage.
That's a pretty good message for motivating women, and anyone who cares about people having health care, to get to the polls in November.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/24/1294360/-Arkansas-Democrats-use-Medicaid-expansion-to-rally-women
