Asked how Montana has managed to squirrel away a $400 million surplus while 48 other states in the Union are all in the red, Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) told Morning Joe: “The reason we have money in the bank is we said ‘no’ to everybody that asked for it.” But what if somebody comes along who Schweitzer can’t say ‘no’ to?
Last July Schweitzer called Medicaid “a system that isn’t working” and noted that through Obamacare Congress wanted “increase the number [of people] on Medicaid so they could do it for the cheap” costing his state hundreds of millions of dollars in matching funds. To their credit the hosts on Morning Joe pressed Schweitzer on whether Obamacare would bankrupt his state. At first he responded “It didn’t challenge the underlying costs of health care in this country” but then largely dodged the question. But after being pressed a third time about whether the state mandated spending in Obamacare would bankrupt his state, Schweitzer predicted: “[The spending] is kicked down the road. And if you believe that this bill is not going to change between now and ’17, ’18, and ’19, when a lot of this kicks in, then you are smoking your own belly button lint.”
Over half of all Americans who gain health insurance through Obamacare will do by enrolling in Medicaid. While the federal government picks up the tab for the first few years, starting in 2015 states Obamacare forces states to spend more on Medicaid without any additional federal funding. That is why honest Democrats like Gov. Schweitzer are predicting financial catastrophe absent major revisions to this very flawed legislation.
