On Saturday a video clip from C-SPAN was posted of Presidential candidate John Kasich speaking to the New Hampshire House Legislature about Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion. Kasich applauded the legislature for adding another big welfare program in the state. Unfortunately Kasich also lied about the program.
Right out of the gate Kasich talks about Medicaid Expansion being for the poor and disabled. He’s wrong. That’s straight up Medicaid which already exists. Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion specifically targets able-bodied adults without children who can work. As discussed over and over again, the majority of the people eligible in New Hampshire were already getting health insurance through their employers. The others chose to work part-time or not at all but were able to.
If you talk to people who actually live in Ohio, you’ll know that Kasich has been lying about Medicaid Expansion from the get go. In a recent article by Jason Hart, he explains that Kasich completely underestimated the costs of the program to the tune of at least $10 billion. From HotAir:
Since January 2014, Kasich’s expansion of Medicaid to working-age adults with no kids and no disabilities has added 5% of Ohio’s population to the welfare rolls and has cost federal taxpayers $6.4 billion.
In 2013, before Kasich vetoed the Ohio General Assembly’s ban on Obamacare expansion and expanded Medicaid unilaterally, critics said costs and enrollment would be higher than expected.
Who was right?
Kasich projected enrollment would reach 447,000 in 2020. He underestimated costs for the first 18 months by $1.5 billion.
In a speech this week to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, Kasich boasted about saving lives by spending $14 billion to put more Ohioans on Medicaid… and then, seconds later, he bragged about slowing Ohio Medicaid spending growth.
Kasich’s $14 billion figure — the amount of “Ohio money” he says he’s “bringing back” — is an old estimate of Obamacare expansion costs through 2020. Based on actual spending, Kasich is understating costs by at least $10 billion.
Kasich lied to New Hampshire’s legislature as he lied to his own Ohio constituents. New Hampshire legislators are following the same path. Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion was supposed to ‘sunset’ when the federal funds (also known as New Hampshire taxpayer dollars) started drying up under the 100% mark.
On Thursday, a public hearing will be head on House Bill 1696 which will re-authorize this medical welfare program by pretending to use gimmicks to pay the ever-increasing costs not paid for by the feds. Unfortunately, the legislators who are supporting this bill are again lying to constituents.
It seems to be a pattern for people who support Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion. Kasich did it just like Governor Hassan has done it and those who support continuing this program are doing it. A little truth goes a long way but taxpayers dollars do not. There does indeed come a time when the political class eventually runs out of other people’s money.
