States not expanding Medicaid paying 37% of cost in other states: report

Sep 4 2014

A McClatchy newspaper analysis also finds that most of the money comes from five non-expansion states: Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. Other news outlets report on the continuing debate in a number of states.

McClatchy: States That Decline To Expand Medicaid Give Up Billions In Aid
If the 23 states that have rejected expanding Medicaid under the 2010 health care law continue to do so for the next eight years, they'll pay $152 billion to extend the program in other states – while receiving nothing in return. This massive exodus of federal tax dollars from 2013 through 2022 would pay 37 percent of the cost to expand Medicaid in the 27 remaining states and Washington, D.C., over that time. Most of the money, nearly $88 billion, would come from taxpayers in just five non-expansion states: Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia (Pugh, 9/2).

Charlotte Observer: North Carolina's $10 Billion Medicaid Challenge: Pay For Other States Or Take Federal Money?
North Carolina taxpayers could spend more than $10 billion by 2022 to provide medical care for low-income residents of other states while getting nothing in return, a McClatchy Newspapers analysis shows. ... At least 575,000 low-income adults in the Carolinas earn too little to get subsidies and don't qualify for Medicaid. Some estimates run as high as 689,000 in North Carolina alone, many working in such low-wage jobs as home health aides, waitresses, bus drivers and construction workers. Novant Health estimates that 118,000 people in the Charlotte region fall into the gap (Helms and Pugh, 9/2).

Deseret News: Gov. Herbert Pushing For Medicaid Work Requirement Tossed From Pennsylvania Plan
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert isn't backing down from insisting on a work requirement in his Healthy Utah alternative to Medicaid expansion, even though Pennsylvania's governor dropped the same mandate to win federal approval. "We're always keeping an eye on what's happening in other states that are in a similar situation. That said, we're not always reactive," Herbert spokesman Marty Carpenter said Tuesday. "It's still a very important element of the deal to the governor" (Roche, 9/2).

Kaiser Health News: Capsules: Indiana, Several Other States Look To Expand Medicaid Next Year
Who's next? With the long-awaited deal to expand Medicaid finally struck last week between Pennsylvania and the Obama administration, 27 states and the District of Columbia have adopted a key coverage plank of the Affordable Care Act. And the momentum continues to grow in Republican-led states as Tennessee and several others look to expand coverage to low-income residents in 2015 (Galewitz, 9/2). 

CNBC: Expanding Profits: Medicaid 'Expansion' Boom For Hospitals
Medicaid expansion is expanding profits for a bunch of hospitals. A new analysis of major for-profit health systems found that hospitals in states that expanded Medicaid eligibility under Obamacare are seeing far fewer uninsured patients, a large rise in paying patients and more revenue as a consequence-;which stands in stark contrast to hospitals in nonexpansion states (Mangen, 9/2).

(Salem, Ore.) Statesman Journal: Oracle Dispute Leads To Delay In Medicaid Transition
The disputes between Oracle and Oregon are forcing the state to grow more dependent on the federal government to manage health insurance sign-ups. "We needed some extra services from Oracle in order to do some additional development on the Medicaid side, but they declined to offer any service beyond their current contract," transition project director Tina Edlund said Tuesday. "We moved those services over to the state data center" (Yoo, 9/2).