Rick Perry actually said that in 2012, and in 2013, he and the Texas legislature proudly rejected the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act because...Obamacare.
Now Rick Perry and the other states rejecting that Medicaid expansion on pure ideological grounds without thinking about the consequences are about to find themselves explaining to constituents, and possibly each other, how their budgets just found themselves in serious deficit status.
States that refuse to expand Medicaid under President Barack Obama's health care reform law not only will deny health coverage to poor residents and lose access to a huge influx of federal dollars, they also will see increased spending on uninsured people's unpaid medical bills, according to a new report by the Rand Corp., a consulting firm.
The Rand Corp. analyzed 14 states with governors who oppose the Medicaid expansion. It found their actions will deprive 3.6 million people of health coverageunder Obamacare, forgo $8.4 billion in federal funding, and cost them $1 billion for programs that partially compensate medical providers who care for the indigent, according to the report published in the journal "Health Affairs." Since nearly half of states may not undertake the Medicaid expansion next year, those figures could be even higher. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia plan to broaden Medicaid in 2014, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
Oops. Suddenly Jan Brewer's decision to force the Arizona legislature into approving the Medicaid expansion makes more sense than it did before. I guess true conservatives think maybe not running huge budget deficits to deny poor people healthcare is the prudent course of action.
What programs will Rick Perry cut so poor people can cost the state billions in emergency room costs? Maybe he and his pals will have to raise taxes instead! Perish the thought.
