In 2014, states began implementing the Medicaid expansion component of ObamaCare, which provides government health care to able-bodied adults up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. This massive expansion of welfare has been a disaster by every measurement available. In states that have chosen to expand Medicaid, dependency has skyrocketed, enrollment has shattered projections, costs have blown past estimates, millions have been kicked off of private insurance, hospitals have been left ill-equipped to provide care, and state budgets have been consumed—all while hundreds of thousands of truly needy individuals have languished on Medicaid waiting lists. Unsurprisingly, as these negative consequences become apparent, fewer states each year are opting to expand Medicaid under ObamaCare.
Since 2017, only three states have accepted ObamaCare expansion through the normal lawmaking process. As a result, the Left is changing their approach—circumventing the duly elected voice of the people in state legislatures and instead putting expansion on the ballot, utilizing misleading ballot language and funneling millions of dollars into red states to convince voters to bring this disaster into their backyards.
Now it is time for legislatures to push back and reclaim their role as the rightful policymakers of states.
