Rejecting Medicaid Expansion A Bad Idea

by Stuart Shapiro

Nearly a year ago, the Supreme Court found the majority of the Affordable Care Act constitutional but said that states could not be required to expand Medicaid, as specified in the statute.  Since then, many states controlled by the Republicans have rejected the free dollars from the federal government.  Well, it turns out they are shooting themselves in the foot.

States would save money by accepting the Medicaid expansion in President Obama’s healthcare law, according to a new study.

The research, published in the journal Health Affairs, said states that reject the Medicaid expansion will end up paying more for healthcare coverage than states that participate — and covering far fewer people.

Together, 14 states that have rejected the expansion will spend $1 billion more on uncompensated care than they would under the expansion, and they’ll lose out on $8.4 billion in federal payments, researchers from the Rand Corporation said.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.