North Carolinians are constantly bombarded by
special interest groups, editorial boards, and general liberal riff raff about
our state not expanding Medicaid. Every
one of these groups has yet addressed the cost, or how we’re going to pay for
it. Apparently, they don’t care.
The Civitas Institute has done their homework. They have outlined what expansion of Medicaid
means for North Carolina and the country in general:
- The federal government covers
the cost of the new enrollees for only the first three years. But where
would they get the money? Some
estimates put the cost of expansion nationally at
$118 billion over the next decade alone. If you haven't noticed, the
federal government is broke.
- After the first three years,
states would begin to pay a share of the additional costs. Some estimates
place the cost of
expansion to North Carolina at more than $3 billion over
the next decade (these are likely very low). Where would the state get the
money? State
Medicaid spending has already shot up 42 percent in
the last decade.
- Who will see the half a million
new Medicaid enrollees? During a recent 8-year span, the state
added 600,000 Medicaid enrollees, a whopping 50% increase in
Medicaid patients. At the same time, the number of physicians accepting
Medicaid patients decreased. The Medicaid system is already overcrowded,
with enrollees having very limited access to actual medical care. What
would happen if we jammed another half a million people into this program?
That would be more than a million additional people crammed into a system
chasing fewer doctors. Imagine adding a population roughly equivalent to
all of Wake County into a system with already nearly 2 million people, all
competing to see a dwindling number of doctors
I’ve yet to read an editorial, or an op-ed in the
Charlotte Observer about the cost of this program. No, it’s all hankies and condemnation. Facts and consequences are irrelevant in that
liberal rag.
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