Overview
Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius calls ObamaCare’s Medicaid welfare expansion “the most generous federal offer ever put on the table.” For states that expand their Medicaid programs to enroll individuals earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, ObamaCare promises to cover the full cost of that expansion through 2016, then ratchet down the portion of costs it will cover over four years to 90 percent, indefinitely. This promise of federal funding may seem alluring, but policymakers should prepare themselves for the possibility that “the most generous federal offer ever put on the table” is likely just another empty federal promise.
