It's even worse political malpractice than is obvious. Those States opting out are going to subsidize via Federal Taxes the States that expanded medicaid! I am confident that people will be so outraged when the Democrats explain how much cash they are foregoing for the sake of ideology that even the most reactionary and ignorant Governors, Bryant in Mississippi for example, will be forced to expand if they have any hope of being re-elected. The Hospitals and Physicians are up in arms about this Republican lunacy. You won't see any reduction in Emergency Room use in those States Opting out, and it's a huge hit to those States' respective economies. I'll give them 6 months before they change their minds. If they don't, turning down all that money will be a huge campaign issue in the mid-term election.
Or maybe the "low-income residents" being affected will pack up and move to a blue state. Those guys love giving away other peoples money.
Their complaint is that Obama promised that they could keep their own personal Physicians,but he lied, and that hurt their feelings.
Is it possible those states turning down the money have at least a few statesmen in their governor's mansions and state legislative bodies? A statesman being someone who does what is right and good for the people regardless of their political career. A politician being someone who does and or says whatever it takes to get re-elected regardless of the long term harm they may cause their constituents.
Spike, I noticed that there is a direct correlation between the amount of posts you make, and the dumber those posts come out. I don't know if it's simply a resource problem, like you're trying to spread around too few brain cells or simply a time issue that prevents you from thinking before you type. If you knew anything at all about being sick and how upsetting it is to lose your doctor (which you don't - the school nurse is always available when you get the sniffles) you might rethink that statement you made (if you were capable of rethinking anything, that is).
So, as usual, the "facts" presented in this article sounded odd so I did a little digging to understand why. I mean, why would so many states give up free federal money and burden their taxpayers in such a way? There had to be a reason beyond simply not liking the ACA. And, of course, there is. Turns out that these expansion funds are paid 100% for the first three years. After that, the states themselves have to find 10% of the expansion fees from their own budgets. Many states took a look at their budgets long term and realized they simply could not pay for these expansion funds, even at the 10% level, without taking on a larger debt burden. So they opted out. It is true that all citizens of every state have to pay a tax that covers the expansion regardless of whether states they live in expand or not, but this is not the state's fault, it is the federal government's fault. Additionally, there is evidence that this offer to pay 100% of the funds from the Federal Government for the first three years might be bait and switch, and that the Federal Government might not make the full payments - or scale them back considerably in the future. Taking the money and expanding medicaid would result in many states having a worse fiscal situation in three years, so they opted out. Fiscal responsibility is alien to liberals, so I can understand why the move would be confusing.
Your feelings are hurt alright, are you going to deny the numerous threads and articles about Obama promising people could keep their own doctors? try addressing the issue or taking it up with the authors of the article.
Yeah . . . those dumb-asses will cut off their noses to spite their faces. they cannot see beyond their noses, how could one expect them to see 3 years ahead.