After action GrokTALK! - Medicaid Expansion - Granite Grok

After action GrokTALK! – Medicaid Expansion

medicade thumbnailDuring our discussion with  Greg Moore from Americans For Prosperity – NH we brought up the fact that the NH State Senate Republican passed Medicaid Expansion is already starting to see overruns and playing havoc with the budget – UNEXPECTEDLY much higher startup and on-going costs for many more people signing up for this Federal Govt Dependency program than first thought.  Gee, who’da thunk it – offer free stuff to people that were paying for it themselves and you think they’d turn it down?  Nope, Democrats have been changing the psyche of the American Public for decades – and the NH State Republicans (like Chuck Morse, Jeb Bradley and Jeannie Forrester) are trying to defend that giveway of other peoples’ money.

Yes sir, Democrat-lite.  And it isn’t just NH Republicans that are in fiscal trouble over it – it seems that other Republican officials just couldn’t resist the lure of “free money” and mimicking the siren call of Democrats of “look what I can do for you!”; from the Washington Times:

First of all, there is no such thing as free money from the federal government. Taxpayers are the ones footing the bill, and we are already $18 trillion in debt. We simply cannot afford it….And congressional leaders like Republican Paul Ryan are already saying the federal government will likely require states to kick in more than that down the line.

Heck, even *I* said that same thing – but I’m just a lowly blogger.  So what other Republican led States are in trouble for grabbing that “free money”? 

In Illinois, state taxpayers are expecting to pay nearly 60 percent more than was originally estimated from 2017 to 2020. State health officials first projected that Illinois would have to pay $573 million for the state’s portion of the expansion.  That number has jumped to $907 million. The reason for the dramatic hike is that far more people are signing up than first anticipated. In 2014, Illinois state officials expected 342,000 people to sign up for Medicaid under the expansion. However, by the end of December, more than 540,000 had signed up.

And Ohio Gov. John Kasich has made MUCH of the “can’t pass up that free money” (re: stupid) argument, and his residents doubled down on him:

…Ohio Republican, planned on having 366,000 people sign up for the expansion through July 2015. However, by December 2014, more than 470,000 people had signed up. Many have argued the estimates were so low because they did not account for people that have now cancelled their private health insurance policies to enroll in Medicaid. With so many people jumping onto the Medicaid rolls, the bill for taxpayers keeps going up. In December alone, the Medicaid expansion in Ohio cost federal taxpayers more than $300 million.

There is no such thing as free money – and Ohio is about to see that.  So, given Kasich’s rumored Prez Wannabe status, how will this be able to be hid?

I am sure as this stuff plays out, either as the traditional Medicare or the “Private Market a rose by any other name” by Republicans, those Republicans are going to get into real trouble.  Sure, first blush some made it through a re-election but when the costs start soaring and those same Republicans have to start raising taxes on those that not only have to carry their own families but others as well…

…like the able bodied men here in NH who now get a free ride.  Will there be a tipping point?

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