Refusal To Expand Medicaid To Cost NC $51 Billion By 2022

NC Gov. McCrory says Medicaid system too broken to expand.

http://abc11.com/archive/9331825/

And where does the good governor intend to turn for the funds to fix it?

$51 billion dollars would go a long way.

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"Obamacare And The Hard, Central Truth Of Contemporary Conservatism"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/04/obamacare-and-hard-central-fact-of.html

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"Why Are Murderous GOP Governors Protected By The Press?"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/why-are-murderous-gop-governors.html

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Study: Refusal to expand Medicaid to cost NC $51Billion by 2022

AUGUST 18, 2014 BY LUCY BUTCHER 

North Carolina’s decision to opt out of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act will cost the state nearly $51 billion in federal funding and reimbursements by 2022, according to a new study out of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Urban Institute.

The state will miss out on $39.6 billion of Medicaid funding, while North Carolina hospitals will lose $11.3 billion in reimbursements.

The 10-year total cost to the state of expanding Medicaid coverage? About $3.1 billion.

The study notes that for every $1 a state invests in Medicaid expansion, the state will receive $13.41 in federal funds, a more than 10-1 return.

24 states including North Carolina have refused to expand Medicaid, resulting in a projected 6.7 million people remaining uninsured in 2016.  According to the study, these states are foregoing a total of $423.6 billion in federal funding — a loss of $167.8 billion in reimbursements for hospitals.

The study also notes that Medicaid expansion would add an expected 78,000 total jobs in nonexpanding states in 2014, 172,400 jobs in 2015, and 98,200 jobs in 2016.

“To place state policy choices in perspective, the 24 states not expanding Medicaid spent an estimated $44.9 billion on tax reductions and other subsidies to attract private business during the most recent single year for which data are available,” the foundation says. “Nonexpanding states thus spend on these business incentives more than 14 times the $3.16 billion average annual amount that would be required to finance Medicaid expansion during 2013-2022.”

The Asheville Citizen-Times has more:

Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Spruce Pine, to whom Republican leaders in the Senate look as an expert on Medicaid, says the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report is likely an exaggeration.

The nonprofit foundation focuses on health policy.

Hise said the state would miss out on about $18 billion over the decade. It would have to spend up to $2 billion a year of its own money to get the payments, he says. The expansion does not cover all costs. Administrative costs, he said, are still a 50-50 split with the state.

Expansion starts with 100 percent funding for services and drops to 90 percent by 2020. But, Hise said, if the federal government changed the plan, the state could pay much more.

Citizen-Times – N.C. to miss $51 billion in federal money

Read the report summary here.

In addition to costing nonexpanding states significant amounts of money, rejection of Medicaid expansion is also expected to cost lives.

A Harvard/CUNY study released earlier this year found that between 7,115 and 17,104 people are likely to die every year as a result of lack of Medicaid expansion. In North Carolina, an estimated 455 to 1,145 people are expected to die annually as a result of the state’s decision.