NH Medicaid Expansion - I wonder if State Senator Jeb Bradley is finally going to apologize to us all? - Granite Grok

NH Medicaid Expansion – I wonder if State Senator Jeb Bradley is finally going to apologize to us all?

NH State Rep Joe LaChance - screwing NH Taxpayers on Medicaid ExpansionEven if he doesn’t, there’s a whole bunch of us that can and will taunt him with “See, told ya so!” as the Baby Daddy of Medicaid Expansion here in NH is finally meeting up with fiscal reality as the Sugar Daddy (the Feds) are tightening up their wallet and taxpayers here in NH are finally going to see Bradley’s decisions come home to roost as EVERY Socialist / Welfare program always costs too much.  Bradley thought he could violate the laws of politics with M.E. just like the Democrats did with Obamacare and now both are looking up from the well of fiscal woes (which will be our woes if it doesn’t get fixed; reformatted and emphasis mine):

Lawmakers weigh reducing Medicaid expansion eligibility level

House lawmakers are considering reducing eligibility for the state’s Medicaid expansion population, part of a piecemeal reform that advocates say could help shift more costs onto the federal government. Proposed by Finance Committee Chairman Neal Kurk, R-Weare, House Bill 1813 would lower the present income cap for the program from 138 percent of the federal poverty line down to 100 percent. “The net effect would be that the cost of most of the members of this group would be shifted from the state taxpayer to the backs of the federal taxpayer” said Kurk at a hearing Thursday.

Sidenote: When you are at the bottom of the government totem pole (local, county, state, and Federal) it really doesn’t matter if which level is paying for what – all this crap about down-shifting and up-shifting is nonsense.  In the end, we taxpayers get it in the end because we’re the ones that have to ante up no matter who is spending what on which because it ALL comes out of our wallets.  But I digress:

New Hampshire’s Medicaid expansion allows those eligible to sign up for marketplace plans without paying premiums; the federal government currently picks up 94 percent of the bill, with the remainder coming from New Hampshire hospitals and insurance companies.

So guess who pays those hospital and insurance bills?  For the economically illiterate among you (most Democrats and ALL Socialist / Progressives), those EVIL corporations (EVIL only for effect) don’t pay it – YOU do.  All day long, every day. Where does the Fed get its money (when it isn’t printing it)?  Of course, you.  And if it is borrowed, from your kids and grandkids.  Again, hospitals and insurance companies are only a “way station” as the money trickles up from you to the Feds, down to the States and counties – and right back into the coffers of the hospitals and insurance companies.

This is the legacy for Jeb Bradley – screwy economics thinking HE could get 50K people health insurance for FREE MONEY! and bad politics that will take a decade to straighten out (like he’s done with PSNH/Eversource).

By lowering the cap on who is eligible, Kurk’s legislation would bar 23.5 percent of those presently in the program, according to an analysis by the Department of Health and Human Services. That amounts to roughly 12,000 people of the 50,000 enrolled in the program. But Kurk argued that those kicked out of the state-run “premium assistance program” would still receive federal cost-sharing reduction payments and advanced premium tax credits to buy plans on the state’s marketplace.

And he said the proposed change could save the state money down the line. New Hampshire doesn’t presently pay the state match out of taxpayer funds, but that arrangement might not last; the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has ruled that New Hampshire’s reliance on insurers and hospitals violates its rules. Meanwhile, the federal share of Medicaid expansion states is set to reduce in coming years, adding a higher gap for the state to fund.

“The idea is not to harm these folks but to shift the cost to the federal government,” Kurk said.

Now if those 12,000 had to find work and get company insurance, this would no longer harm NH Taxpayers because Kurk, like all the other Prestodigtation politicians, thinks this would help taxpayers.  Of course, I know, and now YOU know, that ain’t happenin’.  Worst, politicians know it too.  Again, who pays for the Federal Government (excluding borrowing and printing money)?

Ding, ding, ding – yep, that would be us.  And he and Bradley would really love it if we were to believe them.  Ha!

The change would need to be made through a waiver request to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services by the state.

Opponents said the bill would effectively strand those 23.5 percent in a vulnerable income bracket – between $24,600 to $33,948 for a family of four – because many plans available to them would be cost-prohibitive. Those plans with low enough monthly premiums would carry high deductibles, raising the specter of low-income patients burdening hospitals with uncompensated care, critics argued. “We believe (the bill) will not only harm patients but also their communities and the providers that serve them,” said Christine Stoddard, director of public policy for Bi-State Primary Care Association, which employs insurance navigators to help with enrollment.

Well, congratulations, Ms. Stoddard and everyone else that thought Obamacare was THE answer and that Single Payer would be even more delicious.  Why can’t they see that a flawed economic strategy, which is failing when writ small here in NH, is failing even more Bigly across the nation.  Do you really want to know the real definition of stupidity?  Just smile at them.

And opponents took issue with another provision of the bill that would do away with retroactive eligibility, in which the program covers care used during a period before signing. Some representatives contended that could leave hospitals – particularly rural ones – stuck with the costs of emergency room visits that could otherwise be recouped under the law. Kurk said that he sympathized with the cost concern, but that the measure was an amount of fairness to protect the system against burdensome claims.

“I can’t get fire insurance after my house has burned down,” he said.

On that, he is right – so I just paid my first COBRA payment (which, right after I signed with my former employer that I’d take it, went up from what was stated).  That’s the risk you take when you don’t pay or sign up.   But the “opponents” are Progressive – they show that in their actions in trying to take out ALL risk to those making bad decisions.  They themselves, however, aren’t able to see that they have made an even worse decision.

And these “opponents” so eloquently state, even as they don’t realize it, what bad things can happen when Government decides “Oh, we HAVE to do something because there’s a “market failure” when they should left well alone and not try to nationalize and restructure 20% of our private sector.  NO one knows enough about an uncoordinated decentralized system where 320 million people are making their own decisions in their best interests.  The root cause of this whole mess is that Progressives believe otherwise – and by his actions, Jeb Bradley has shown himself to be one (e.g., thinking he’s the Smartest Guy In The Healthcare Room).

(H/T: Concord Monitor)

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