States Cry to Washington: Remove Obamacare’s Medicaid Handcuffs

Brian Blase / January 11, 2011

The big news out of a majority of state capitols is that Obamacare’s Medicaid mandates will exacerbate state budget problems and drive many states to the brink of insolvency.

Thirty-three Republican governors and governors-elect have signed a letter to the White House and Congress making an emphatic appeal that Obamacare’s Medicaid provisions be repealed.

Medicaid pays health care and long-term care expenses for certain categories of individuals. Medicaid has many problems, but the central one is that it costs taxpayers nearly $400 billion annually without providing recipients a high quality of care.

National spending on Medicaid has more than quintupled over the past two decades, and about 16 percent of the population is currently enrolled. A recent study from the University of Virginia found that Medicaid patients have worse surgical outcomes than individuals without insurance. Despite these problems, Obamacare relies heavily on the Medicaid program to reduce the number of individuals without health insurance. (more…)