Cutting off your nose

From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:

States that expanded the number of people eligible for Medicaid are seeing big budgetary savings without reducing services, a new report shows. Prepared by researchers at Manatt with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the report identifies $1.8 billion in budget savings and revenue gains across eight states by the end of 2015—a direct result of Medicaid expansion. Researchers say the savings come from less state spending on programs for the uninsured; more federal dollars coming to the state for newly eligible Medicaid enrollees—including funds to cover typically expensive beneficiaries like pregnant women and the disabled; and increased revenue from existing insurer and provider taxes. In some states, budget savings should offset the cost of expanding Medicaid through 2021.

The eight states studied are Arkansas, Colorado, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and West Virginia.

The report highlights specific sources of savings for each of the states. Across the eight states, for example, $68 million will be saved through 2015 as a result of more pregnant women now being covered with enhanced federal funding. States are also seeing savings from behavioral health programs. The highlighted states will save $472 million through 2015 on mental and behavioral health care spending, now that more state residents with mental or behavioral health care needs are covered by Medicaid.

“States that expanded Medicaid are finding that it was a win-win proposition. More people have health insurance, which reduces the states’ costs for caring for the uninsured. Savings to state budgets are in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” said John Lumpkin, MD, senior vice president at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “When states expand who is eligible for Medicaid coverage, they see the federal government cover more of the costs of caring for patients who historically have been expensive to care for.”

Meanwhile, Rick Scott Flip-Flops, Opposes Obamacare's Medicaid Expansion. Obama could discover cold fusion and Republican governors would refuse to allow the electricity to be used in their states.