As you know, when the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, it also said that states could not be forced to expand Medicaid as called for by the ACA. Right away we saw some of the Republican Party's better known grandstanding governors announce rejection of the Medicaide expansion no matter how many people in the state would be helped or how much federal money it would bring to the state. As for the rest of the country, the picture is still developing. Our colleagues over on the Lean Forward blog went through, state by state, reviewing statements by key leaders to assess the prospects for Medicaid expansion in each state - producing the map below.
Click through for an interactive version that gives details of what's at stake for each state.
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Good luck to Pennsylvania Republicans if they think they'll not do the Expansion. Medicaid Expansion in Pennsylvania would save the state somewhere between $3 billion and $4 billion. (Kaiser study figures.)
It will be like handing the governorship and the legislature over to the Democrats on a silver platter in 2014.
Does this mean more money for the states that DO expand medicaid? In this way the blue states could finally get a more fair share of their tax dollars back!
Guess those red states not only don't want to help poor people, they don't want to help the middle class either (through the local jobs and spending and thus increased local taxes that will be stimulated by the federal money).
And their reluctance to help anyone but the rich is a surprise? It certainly is not to me.
PEA, you beat me to it! Those doctors and nurses and PAs and orderlies and hospital admin staff and pharmacists and, of course insurance company employees will all tend to spend their salaries where they live, so it's stimulus too. That means better sales tax revenue for localities. And a more prosperous, health-secure workforce base for employers. All win.
Who's going to tell Rick Perry that he's going to be exporting tax money(Texas is the only red state surplus) to left coast and northeast liberals?
Look at that map. Shall we fight the Civil War again. They never get that they lost. Must be because of the way history books are written there.
What a strange country.....guns for everyone but medical care for only a few.....sigh
Nobody is forced to buy a gun though.
Wow simplistic reply. Nobody is forced to use a gun either.
The act does not require you to buy insurance. It does require you to pay a penalty -note that this does two things A) it helps cover the cost of those people when they have to go to the hospital but can't pay the bill B) it helps to show if those people have the means to at least pay some of the medical bills they will incur in life.
Time is not on the naysayers side, the Teahaddist ALEC driven state houses and governorships will cave in because of sheer economics, and, when the FEDS come in to implement the exchanges, with or without the help of the Luddite driven pathological deniers.
I guess the GOP is playing dead man's bluff in the red states.
As the one congressman said "The GOP medical is plan is just die"
The real reality is. Everyone of those Red States who are saying No flat out. And the ones heavily leaning towards No. IS going to end up expanding Medicare. For the simple reason of. They can't afford not to. Because everyone of those states. Are Broke! And quit frankly need the damn money.
They can argue and play this hold. "I'll be damned if I do this ObamaCare Thing!" But in the end the states are going to do it. Because 100's of Millions in free money. Is impossible to walk away from. When you are 100's of Millions in debt. For a lot of those states. Expanding Medicare will put them back in the black. But not doing it. Will keep them in the red. And most likely out of office come the 2014 election year. Which means the states are going to get the Expansion anyway.