The Truth About Heathcare Reform

What is going on? Why are so many Republican governors still resisting every part of the Affordable Care Act they can? The reason is simple...they are scared to death the ACA will succeed and when it does...they will fail as a political party in America, forever.

There are two major points of resistance that Republicans are still insanely fighting to the death on: 1) refusal to accept the new Medicaid funding; and 2) refusal to establish state-run healthcare exchanges.

The second point is the easiest to discuss. The exchanges will be established, they are inevitable. The only question is how much input the states will have. Many Republican-led states have announced they are not establishing exchanges. All that means is that the Federal government will establish exchanges in their state without their input. Pretty stupid sounding, isn't it?

The first point is a bit more complicated to discuss, but it is just as simple to understand. Currently, Medicaid is a deal where the Federal government provides around 55% of the funds and the states match it with around 45%. Studies have shown that even at this level of matching funding, Medicaid is a net-positive for the states. That means that the influx of Federal funds not only does good for the poorest residents of a state, but it also creates stimulus with the result being jobs and people with those jobs paying taxes to the state. The new Medicaid funding is a no-brainer. The deal is that the Federal government will provide 100% of the funding, that's right, all of it, for the first 3 years. The states will provide no money whatsoever from 2014-2016. Then, after 2016, the state contribution will rise from 0% to 10% over the next several years. So, by 2020, the Federal share will be 90% and the state share will be 10%. You would have to be stupid...or evil...not to accept this money. Let me suggest that very few governors are stupid.

Not only does the new Medicaid funding provide health insurance to tens of millions of the poor in our country, but a major affect of this funding will be to provide reimbursement, billions of dollars of reimbursement, to hospitals for the care they currently provide to the poor that the poor do not pay for. Many people mistakenly think that hospitals "write off" care they provide to the poor...nothing could be further from the truth. What hospitals do is to "cost shift" to those of us who have insurance or pay our bills. I have studied the affect of the new Medicaid money in Florida and can tell you that the cost shifting that would be eliminated should reduce the hospital bills for the "taxpayers" in Florida by almost twice the state contribution to the program anticipated through the year 2020.

One other affect that will likely arise from the Republican governors refusal to accept the new Medicaid funding is another kind of "shifting." I expect that the poor in states like Florida and Oklahoma will "shift" to states like Massachusetts in order to get Medicaid insurance coverage.

I repeat, Republicans are still trying to destroy a program that their very own "thinkers" designed many aspects of. I had hoped that they would have finally accepted that they lost the election, President Obama cannot run again, and they would finally do at least one thing that is good for the country. But, it seems, they are still dedicated to inflicting extreme damage on America in the hope that they will be able to take power some day so they can inflict their extreme right-wing ideology on this great country.

How unpatriotic!