Medicaid Expansion Squeezes Middle Class

Obamacare has taken its toll on private insurance companies and the middle class.  North Carolinians once had a choice between 29 different insurers, now there are only 8.  The few who remain are threatened by unrelenting waves of rising cost.  Blue Cross and Blue Shield are expected to report losses of $400 million for 2014 and 2015.  This is unsustainable.

Progressives demand the Old North State expand Medicaid rolls.  They believe a government takeover is a panacea for all the ills that plague our healthcare system, when in fact it is the opposite.  Carolina Journal reported the following:

    

 “If anything … the reduction in the number of uninsured is really largely attributed to the number of states that have decided to expand Medicaid, but other than that it’s really not been successful,” said Katherine Restrepo, health and human services policy analyst at the John Locke Foundation.

But those states that have expanded Medicaid have found it “only increases costs for private coverage, and that squeezes out the middle class people from being able to afford their health insurance plans if they don’t have them through their employer,” Restrepo said.

Medicaid expansion also increases the scope of the government safety net, “and when you have government rate-setting, and determining what services a doctor can provide, that just creates all sorts of problems, and access problems, and then that compromises quality of care,” Restrepo said.

Quality of care doesn’t rate highly on a progressives’ playlist, neither does the middle class despite their protestations.  They’re more concerned about intentions than outcomes.

Source:

https://www.carolinajournal.com/news-article/goodwin-obamacare-driving-insurers-from-n-c/