AFP Reacts to Medicaid Expansion in Governor’s Address
“Across the country, states that have expanded Medicaid have experienced major cost overruns that are busting state budgets,” says State Director Ben Lee
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Americans for Prosperity South Dakota released the following statement in response to Governor Daugaard’s budget address and Medicaid Expansion. The Governor’s FY17 budget would add $373 million dollars to our national debt and 55 new employees to the state payroll to expand Medicaid.
“We share the Governor’s concerns about Medicaid expansion and appreciate his past record of fiscal responsibility,” said Americans for Prosperity South Dakota State Director Ben Lee. “We’re still reviewing the details of the plan but we do know a few things: expansion hasn’t gone as planned in other states and taxpayers can’t afford to keep growing our unsustainable national debt.”
“Across the country, states that have expanded Medicaid have experienced major cost overruns that are busting state budgets. These cost overruns have forced states to make painful cuts to priorities like roads and schools or raise taxes. And we can’t forget that choosing to expand Medicaid will add $300 million to the national debt — that’s money our children and grandchildren will be forced to pay off years down the line. South Dakota can’t afford to make the same mistake.”
Across the country Medicaid Expansion states have seen costs surge out of control “Across the country, states that opted into Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion have seen the number of able-bodied adults on welfare skyrocket beyond expectations. In fact, after just one year of Obamacare expansion, several states have already seen more adults sign up for Medicaid welfare than they thought would ever sign up or even be eligible.” (The ObamaCare Expansion Enrollment Explosion, Foundation for Government Accountability, 4/20/15)
Government Accountability Office: Arkansas’ “Private Option” Medicaid Expansion plan $778 million over budget “GAO estimated that, by including these costs, the 3-year, nearly $4.0 billion spending limit that HHS approved for the state’s demonstration was approximately $778 million more than what the spending limit would have been if it was based on the state’s actual payment rates for services under the traditional Medicaid program,” the report said. (Medicaid Demonstrations: HHS’s Approval Process for Arkansas’s Medicaid Expansion Waiver Raises Cost Concerns, Government Accountability Office, 8/4/14)
With Medicaid Expansion in Colorado, one in five adults are now on Medicaid “Colorado decided to expand. That’s led the state to enroll about 450,000 people in the last two years. One in five Colorado residents is on Medicaid.” (In Colorado, More People Are Insured But Cost Remains An Issue,National Public Radio, 9/16/15)
Illinois’ Medicaid expansion ran $800 million over budget in the first year alone “Medicaid expansion in Ohio has run $1.5 billion over budget so far, Washington state has had to boost its biennial budget by $2.3 billion “solely due to higher-than-expected” expansion costs, and Illinois’ expansion ran $800 million over budget last year.” (Higher costs for Obamacare’s new Medicaid patients, CNBC, 6/13/15)
Kentucky’s program running $1.8 billion over budget “By the end of the first year, more than 375,000 able-bodied adults enrolled into ObamaCare expansion, roughly double the number the state thought would ever sign up. As a result, Kentucky budget officials now estimate Medicaid expansion will cost $1.8 billion more than projected in fiscal years 2014 and 2015.” (The ObamaCare Expansion Enrollment Explosion, Foundation for Government Accountability, 4/20/15)
Michigan faces budget shortfall of more than $100 million thanks to Medicaid Expansion“Michigan’s Medicaid program faces a budget shortfall this year of more than $100 million. That’s because a new tax on health insurance claims is not producing as much revenue as state officials expected.” (State lawmakers look to patch Medicaid shortfall, say long-term solution critical, Michigan Radio, 2/21/14)
Ohio $1.5 billion over budget for Medicaid Expansion program “In its first 18 months, Kasich’s Obamacare expansion enrolled 243,373 more people than projected and ran $1.5 billion over budget.” (Report: Three-fourths of Ohio Obamacare enrollees are on Medicaid, The Highland County Press, 9/16/15)
Washington State forced to increase state budget by $2.3 billion in order to compensate for unexpected Medicaid Expansion costs “Medicaid expansion in Ohio has run $1.5 billion over budget so far, Washington state has had to boost its biennial budget by $2.3 billion “solely due to higher-than-expected” expansion costs, and Illinois’ expansion ran $800 million over budget last year.” (Higher costs for Obamacare’s new Medicaid patients, CNBC, 6/13/15)
West Virginia enrollment 177% higher than expected “West Virginia has already boomed past the extra 93,000 people the state expected to enroll by 2020 under a Medicaid expansion plan ushered in by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin in 2013.” (A look at the Medicaid expansion in West Virginia, Associated Press, 7/19/15)
Putting funding for roads, education, and the truly vulnerable at risk of being cut “With Medicaid expansion enrollment far exceeding projections, states that adopted the expansion will soon need to find additional funds to pay for the inevitable cost overruns. States will begin paying a share of Obamacare expansion costs in 2017, assuming the federal government even lives up to its funding promise that long…Obamacare’s perverse funding scheme encourages state budgeters to steal resources from seniors, children, pregnant women, and individuals with disabilities in order to free up funding for Medicaid expansion.” (The ObamaCare Expansion Enrollment Explosion, Foundation for Government Accountability, 4/20/15)
I am squarely with AFP in that poor people who need medicaid, poor people who need government handouts, poor people who aren’t productive members of society are the worst. We really need to bring back the civillian conservation corps. If you cannot get a job, we have one for you. If you do not want a job, there will be no help for you.
Thank you, AFP!
Putting people on Medicaid doesn’t do them any favors. Medicaid is not as good as private insurance.
Putting people on Medicaid doesn’t do them any favors. Medicaid is not as good as private insurance.
Nobody is forced to use Medicaid or Medicare or ACA …Buy your own coverage..
I can’t help but think the Governor is privately hoping legislative Republicans either pull a workable rabbit out of the hat, or kill it.
According to Daugaard, if all goes perfectly according to plan with IHS and the feds, then the money to expand Medicaid will just be transferred from IHS treatments to expanded Medicaid coverage. I think we all know what happens with government promises that the costs will be no greater than X in X years, and we all know that those costs will suddenly greatly be underestimated. So no, and no, and no to Medicaid expansion. Can the state ever back out if it would decide to expand Medicaid and then find out we can’t afford it? Probably not, no no, and no, and NO. I heard Bernie Hunhoff and another after the budget address yesterday say that over 300 people have died just because SD refused to expand Medicaid; since those facts are unprovable, they are free to spout that, but I highly doubt those numbers. If a person is able to work and obtain benefits on his/her own, they should DO SO!
So the K
och brothers have decided what is best for South Dakota. How nice.
Wow. You can say that with a straight face? How about this, “So Obama has decided what is best for South Dakota and the rest of the nation”? He forced all this (Obamacare and its attendant costs etc) on the American people even though the majority didn’t want it, the legislators never read the bill, and he lied about keeping your doctor and insurance and about its costs.
Last time I looked Obama was the elected President of the United States, and the Koch brothers were elected by whom?
The Koch brothers have created more jobs than the community organizer ever did, and they contribute to this country’s prosperity by their enterprises will your precious Obummer does nothing but deride responsibility and work ethic. Just because a lot of idiots wanted to be “historic” doesn’t make Obama a good or even mediocre president; he is clearly one of the worst presidents ever, and the fact that he stole the election in 2012 with the help of the corrupt IRS doesn’t adds to his designation as a terrible leader.
In a Democracy, that is a crazy statement. We all get to comment on policy and just because you are President doesn’t mean you are guaranteed to be right. At least the Koch Brother’s put their names on their views.
“At least the Koch Brother’s put their names on their views.”– What???
Jaa, Troy Jones is off his medication again. The Koch Brothers are hiding behind so many aliases that it would be literally impossible to shine the light on all of them.
What Troy should have said is that the Koch Brothers are not ashamed to publicly acknowledge the politicians they have bought and paid for. Some Democrats. Many Republicans.
Troy needs to understand that people other than his dogmatic followers are engaging their BS detectors. The statement you show here triggers a huge red blinking BS light.
Like Bloomberg, Soros and that other liberal billionaire from California? Both sides do it and Soros is the worse as his true agenda is distraction then distruction of capitalism.
So it is ObamaCare’s fault that these states are initially low balling the enrollment estimates? I don’t think so.
It is nothing new for politicians to high the hidden costs to get legislation passed.
What about all of the people who now have health insurance? Shouldn’t we be happy about that? Those of you who are pro-life should be elated, because isn’t access to health care and health insurance an issue that promotes life?
You ask what about the people who now have health insurance. What about the people who lost their health insurance with enactment of Obamacare? What about the people who have seen their premiums and deductibles skyrocket since Obamacare? Here is an interesting article about the facts behind the wonderful number of people who now have health care who didn’t before or who just started working and got employer based health insurance who have gotten it anyway or who have gotten insured through the expansion of Medicaid.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottgottlieb/2015/05/14/how-many-people-has-obamacare-really-insured/
“The Obama administration fiddled with the Census Bureau’s definition of what it means to be “uninsured.” The new parameters, which were looser than the old factors, make it hard to construct comparisons between today’s figures for the total number of uninsured and the historical trends.
“The Obama team also abruptly started to exclude uninsured illegal immigrants from the national tally on total number of uninsured Americans. Before Obamacare, these individuals were counted in that reporting, inflating the numbers.
“Now, a new analysis from the highly regarded managed care analyst at Goldman Sachs, Matthew Borsch, and his team, cast uncertainty on some of the recent data releases from the White House…, according to the Goldman analysis, about two-thirds of the 2014 coverage increase was from the expansion in Medicaid. For 2014, their figures for net new coverage includes 9 million more people obligated to Medicaid, and about 2 million aging into Medicare. Only about 3 million got commercial coverage.”
You can’t “lose” your health insurance because there is always the exchange. Prior to Obamacare, my health insurance company(ies) changed their policies every year. I, nor no one, has ever been allowed to keep their health insurance.
Most of the people who have seen their premiums or deductibles “skyrocket” had cadillac plans, which the rest of us were paying for prior to Obamacare.
So you are concern that Obama is excluding the illegal immigrants from the numbers. Um? Since when was the right, like yourself, concerned about the illegal immigrants and whether they mattered?
As far as most of the new expansion coming from Medicaid and not private insurance companies. So what? The American middle class is in decline (check out the recent Pew study on this….) primarily do to Republican policies over the last 30+ years and there are only more Medicaid receipts to come…. All the more reason we should have a single payer system…. extend Medicare to all!!
…And, how can you make your Goldman Sachs analysis, which is based on White House numbers, when you also challenge the efficacy of the White House numbers to begin with…?
Extend Medicare to all! Spoken like a true liberal who loves any government program to solve any problem, even those caused by that very same government. Just who is going to pay for all this Medicare/Medicaid, whatever? Maybe it’s all coming from Obama’s stash. And this is all due to Republican policies for the last 30 years?! How does that koolaid taste? I know able bodied people, some of whom are willing to work, who are advised by their social workers not to work but to go on the government dole; these policies are being encouraged by the present Democrat policies, because we all know who rules the roost these days.
And you claim that everyone who has lost his insurance can simply on the exchange? Hogwash! You could have had a perfectly good plan, that plan was canceled and maybe even the insurance company went out of business, and now you are left not making enough to qualify for Obamacare exchanges but making too much for Medicaid. But never mind, in your little world that never happens and Obama never lied and Congress read the bill.
First of all, Congress hardly ever reads a bill. Didn’t you see “Fahrenheit 9/11?”
As far as Obama’s lie, well, it is saving lives by offering health insurance to them. Your president lied and ten of thousands of people died as a result.
“You are left not making enough to qualify for Obamacare exchanges…”
To that one, let me just say that, one, you do not have to qualify for anything if your current employer does not offer insurance and, two, if you cannot afford it they have such a thing as a tax break for that one…;-)
Earlier, you asked who was going to pay for all of that new Medicaid and Medicare. Well, we all are. It’s a priority. It’s a “life” issue that for some reason you conservatives never support or try to protect. I do not know why?
You do have to qualify for Obamacare – you have to be able to afford their premium etc or you can’t get an exchange insurance; and you can’t afford the premium on health insurance for yourself; so you are left in limbo. But of course, according to you everyone is covered now that Obamacare is here – wrong.
I guess I don’t get your reference to Obama’s lie. But then we are so used to his lying by now that it’s no surprise.
The fact of free anything is that without strings attached in order to continue obtaining the free stuff/material/service the offered is obliged to offer nothing in return to the offerer.
If we raised our children under this scenario they would end up spoiled rotten brats who think the world owes them a living.
Premium increases blame squarely on Republicans.
NYTimes…
Those last-minute provisions can have a huge impact. One Marco Rubio slipped into last year’s spending bill has undermined the Affordable Care Act, forcing premiums to rise and some insurers to close. Still, the Obama administration boasted of robust sign-ups for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, with next Tuesday the deadline for coverage starting Jan. 1.
Obama boasted!!! Wow. We know how credible anything he boasts about is — NOT.