Medicaid isn't just a nice thing to do . . .

We haven't had a repeat of the Great Depression, and a major reason is the introduction of so-called automatic stabilizers -- originally Social Security and AFDC ("welfare"), later Medicare and Medicaid. These "entitlement" programs make sure that consumer spending by poor and low income people doesn't get wiped out in an economic downturn, thereby creating the liquidity trap that brought on the depression.

From The Commonwealth Fund:

Medicaid Caps Would Increase Uninsured, Erode Recession Buffer, Study Says
MAY 9, 2005 -- Preliminary results of a study released Monday by the Economic and Social Research Institute say if Medicaid had been capped at enrollment levels that existed in the program in 1999, the number of uninsured would stand at 50 million rather than 45 million.

snip

"Medicaid may play a crucial role in helping the country recover from recession," [researcher Stan] Dorn said at a Washington forum sponsored by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Under Medicaid's entitlement structure, enrollment and outlays rise as the economy worsens, providing a buffer against rising lack of insurance and an automatic economic stimulus to counter a downturn.

But the Free Market Fundamentalists who control the government today practice faith based economics.