Some health care policy experts are questioning how serious declarations by a handful of Far Right Republican Governors really are. Because rejecting expanding Medicaid would be seriously dumb. Rick Scott's edict to deny expanded Medicaid would deprive hundreds of thousands (if not a million) Floridians of health care. About 4 million people in Florida lack health insurance, a quarter of who could have been helped by the Medicaid expansion made possible by the A.C.A.
States opting out of Medicaid expansion could leave many uninsured
By Stephanie Condon
The office of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley told the Charleston Post and Courier that the Palmetto State is similarly opting out of both programs. And over the weekend, Govs. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana also said they're opting out.
BUT
"A governor would be walking away from millions, in some cases billions of federal dollars," Tim Jost, a consumer advocate and professor of health law at Washington and Lee University, told CBSNews.com.
Furthermore, they'd be leaving a significant portion of their citizens without health care. Florida, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, has the second-highest rate of uninsured Americans at 21 percent. The expansion of Medicaid in the state would have covered 951,622 people according to Kaiser.
Jost said he's not surprised that governors like Scott and Haley are saying they will opt out of the Medicaid expansion. However, he said, "I will be surprised if they do it." ____________
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Tea Party members of congress are shrilly trying to push GOP Governors to reject setting up the state insurance exchanges the A.C.A. mandates.
GOP lawmakers urge governors not to enact Obama healthcare law provisions
By Elise Viebeck
"By refusing to create an exchange, you will assist us in Congress to repeal this violation which will help lower the costs of doing business in your state," the lawmakers wrote to governors.
Of course we have no way to know what these Governors real intentions are. What we need to do is raise a rucks in these states about just how cruel it would be for those states to leave so many needy citizens in the lurch, just to save a relatively modest increase in Medicaid costs relative to the large number of people the expansion would cover. We need to increase the political costs for acting dumb.
Also see my post from yesterday: GOP Govs Scott & Jindal look ACA gift horse in mouth tell their citizens they can't ride it