Tweet
By Chris Lilienthal, Third and State
With the election decided, it is now clear that the Affordable Care Act is here to stay. That’s great news for Pennsylvanians, some of whom have already begun to benefit from the health reform law, and many others who will see more gains as major provisions take effect in 2014.
As Judy Solomon writes at the Off the Charts Blog, a key provision of the law will allow states to expand Medicaid to cover low-income adults earning up to 133% of the poverty line, with the federal government covering most of the costs:
The question now is whether some states will squander this opportunity to cover millions of uninsured Americans.
Coverage for more than 11 million poor, uninsured adults is at risk if states don’t expand Medicaid, according to the Urban Institute.
As you can see in the chart above, Pennsylvania is among the states that have not made a clear decision on the Medicaid expansion.
Failing to expand Medicaid would squander the opportunity to boost our state economy. The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured estimates that the Medicaid expansion in Pennsylvania will amount to at least $17 billion in additional federal dollars invested in the state between 2014 and 2019. By contrast, as Solomon writes, the “Congressional Budget Office estimates that if all states adopt the expansion, they will spend only 2.8 percent more on Medicaid from 2014 to 2022 than they would have spent without health reform.”
Failing to expand Medicaid would also cost Pennsylvania real money that would otherwise be saved by reducing what the state spends to provide health care in emergency rooms and health clinics to people without insurance.
Governor Corbett and the Legislature should take steps to expand Medicaid in 2014. It will help thousands of working parents and other adults in Pennsylvania get the quality health care they need and give the state’s economy a real boost.
6 Comments
I know you arent really interacting here so I feel like I’m talking to a mannequin. I think the rules should be changed to ban or not front page at least these types of diaries.
If Dean Baker can’t be bothered to participate in the thread for instance, then let him go self-promote elsewhere. As an economist he above all others should understand there is a cost he needs to pay for promoting his excellent work. And that cost should require his participation in the thread. I’ve blasted Greenwald’s schtick many times but I do note that he regularly comments and responds to other commenters. I mean, doesn’t have to be like a hangout, but at least pay attention. And be critical too, not just another echo chamber apparatchik. That would be cool.
Now to my point: of course, passing healthcare reform was indeed a startlingly progressive act on s few levels, although not reconised as such by people who focus solely on the compromises that necessitated its barely passing Congress.
I’ve commented on this point often. The expansion of Medicaid eligibility is easily the most liberal social policy enacted since Medicare/Medicaid itself. The fact that the Federal government will fund the expansion entirely is truly an example of leftist social policy. Yeah, I know, private Medicare HMOS. Definitely suck. If only we lived in Leningrad 1917 or Canada, or wtf.
We don’t. There is that pesky 48% GOP vote. The people are evenly split on Obamacare, because its benefits accrue mainly to the poorest who vote the least.
Progressives need to put aside their aversion to the compromise aspects of ACA and recognise the Medicaid expansion as the heart and soul of progressive policy in life if not dream, and work hard to make sure it is implemented at the state level.
I’m taking on the challenge in Texas, porbably the most difficult.
But Texas too is trending hispanic faster than anywhere except maybe California and the vote is slowly but surely turning blue here as well.
I’m thinking like with unemployment comp extension funded through the Obama Stimulus, good sens will trump Rick Perry’s hair spray addled brain.
Even Rick backs in state college tuition for illegal aliens.
Surely, he can be made to see that Medicaid expansion is also a huge minourity concern.
Can the My FDL progressive actually recognise that fact and work for it’s implementation too?
But the most striking thing for me
Isn’t there something wrong with this map? One would think so, at this late date, mindful of all the exhortations and sanguine reassurances since last June. There have been both moral and practical arguments which have been heard, and bypassed.
The problem is Roberts’ decision opened the door to the most cynical and perverse calculations, which are also the easiest to make. Simply don’t participate and let the underserved healthcare consumers migrate away, if they choose, and toward where the benefits are better.
The most subtle problem is that benefits are actually available, albeit “somewhere else” thanks to Roberts, and absolute denial isn’t in play (which would be a lot easier to counter).
The obvious solution is also impossible: the Feds simply strip Medicaid from the states, standardize it nationwide, and cover the extra people automatically. Cut other Fed aid if necessary to make up the very small state contribution expected after three years.
If the Dems had won a trifecta I bet a case could have been made to do this. Maybe unrealistic on my part, and overcome by events nonetheless.
Also regarding that map. . . Isn’t NC about to get a GOP Gov, the 30th state in that predicament? Then NC should probably be yellow on that map rather than light blue.
As has been pointed out over and over on FDL many millions will be paying for Obamacare for others with their penalties. The ACA is a horrible law. My wife and I just got our rates, for me to be covered on her insurance next year, it went up over 40% from last year. Our insurance premium went up 25% annually for the two previous years. 2014 is gong to be a slaughter for the Democrats.
The national average is 4% for next year.
http://csbj.com/2012/11/09/health-insurance-rate-increases-at-10-year-low/
Something is disconnected.
I apologize that we have not commented much in this space or interacted very well with readers. We do read comments from readers and are trying now to make more of an effort to respond and interact when we have something to add.