ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion has been an abject disaster. In virtually every state that implemented it, enrollment and cost estimates have shattered expectations. On average, states have signed up twice as many enrollees as promised, while experiencing average cost overruns of 157 percent. Promised hospital jobs never materialized, with Medicaid expansion states reporting severe hospital financial shortfalls due to more individuals receiving care at lower Medicaid reimbursement rates. Meanwhile, the truly vulnerable have been left to wait for care.
If the remaining non-expansion states were to implement Medicaid expansion, it would shift more than 9.9 million able-bodied, working-age adults onto welfare at a cost of more than $600 billion over the next 10 years. At least $60 billion of this would be picked up by state taxpayers.
In an effort to entice states into expanding welfare—despite the serious risk and chaos it would bring them—the Democrat-controlled federal government has devised a new “incentive” or bait.
