Obamacare Expansion Of Medicaid Could Be Disastrous For States
Despite already facing a $21 billion shortfall in its Medicaid program, the State of Illinois is pushing to implement Obamacare’s expansion of the state-run program:
On Monday, Illinois’ Department of Healthcare and Family Services sought a waiver from the federal government to implement ObamaCare’s massive expansion of Medicaid in Cook County two years early.
But as we’ve already reported, the ObamaCare expansion is going to cost the state more than $10 billion by the end of the decade. The Supreme Court will decide this summer whether or not the expansion is even constitutional, and state law even prohibits expanding the program until at least 2013.
This is yet another facet of Obamacare that often goes overlooked. Beyond the expense to the federal government, a good deal of the law includes expanding state-level health care programs, chief among them Medicaid. This will be an enormous new cost the states will be stuck paying for.
With many of the states facing already facing abysmal, debt-ridden budget situations this is hardly a good thing. Illinois’ push toward this expansion of Medicaid is particularly crazy given that Illinois, behind perhaps only California, has one of the worst budget situations in the country.
Tags: illinois, medicaid, obamacare
