Democrats ask: Why not expand the worst insurance in America?
ObamaCare's website appears to have been built by Mitt Romney's
"Project Orca" digital team, and perhaps tens of people have managed to
sign up so far. "Fully enrolled, I can't tell you. I don't know,"
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius conceded Monday.
But Democrats do have one lament about implementation: Some states are
opting out of the Medicaid expansion.
Medicaid, the joint state-federal safety net intended for the poor,
already covers more than one of five Americans and pays for two of five
U.S. births. And that's before ObamaCare dumps up to 20 million new
dependents onto its rolls. Liberals are still somehow evoking Little
Nell and the blacking factory because 26 Governors or legislatures or
both are so far declining to expand. Their hysterics would benefit from a
fact or two.
First note the Perils-of-Pauline Medicaid moment is the result of a
7-2 Supreme Court majority, which ruled that the Affordable Care Act's
expansion mandate was coercion exceeding the Constitution's limits on
federal spending powers. This was the first such holding in the history
of the Republic and the rebuke ought to embarrass Democrats, if they're
still familiar with that sensation.
Note also that the opinion, which allowed states to choose to expand
or not, was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, President
Obama's former Solicitor General. These liberal stalwarts explained
that ObamaCare transformed Medicaid into something that "is no longer a
program to care for the neediest among us." The major reason states
don't want to participate is that rather than help members of society
emerge from poverty, new Medicaid is supposed to be a permanent
Washington-run, price-controlled health system, with no flexibility for
the states.
The feds are dangling the promise of paying for all the costs of the
new beneficiaries, at least for the next three years. This subsidy
honeypot can't last forever, and Governors are right to worry about
taking on fiscal obligations that will increase 13% on average in 2014
under new Medicaid, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation state budget
survey.
(Click link below to read more)
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- Judy Chaffee
- This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
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