Well, Duh: Medicaid Enrollment Soaring Unexpectedly

Everybody knows the end game for Obamacare is a “single-payer” — i.e., taxpayer — system in which all medical issues are controlled by the federal government. Bonus side effect: bankrupting state governments along the way! Read it and weep:

More than a dozen states that opted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act have seen enrollments surge way beyond projections, raising concerns that the added costs will strain their budgets when federal aid is scaled back starting in two years. Some lawmakers warn the price of expanding the health care program for poor and lower-income Americans could mean less money available for other state services, including education.

In Kentucky, for example, enrollments during the 2014 fiscal year were more than double the number projected, with almost 311,000 newly eligible residents signing up. That’s greater than what was initially predicted through 2021. As a result, the state revised its Medicaid cost estimate from $33 million to $74 million for the 2017 fiscal year. By 2021, those costs could climb to a projected $363 million.

“That is a monstrous hole that we have got to figure out how to plug, and we don’t know how to do it,” said Kentucky state Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Republican who leads the Senate budget committee and opposed expansion. “The two biggest things that keep me up at night are state pensions and the cost of expanded Medicaid.”

For patients who have only recently gained access to health care, the program is about far more than dollars and cents. And supporters downplay the budget concerns, pointing to studies that indicate the economic benefits of expanding health care will result in significant savings over time.

Yeah, right. Isn’t that what the statist Left always says?

Supporters of the expansion, including Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, predict their states will save money in the long run because Medicaid will allow some state-run services to be eliminated and will stimulate the economy through new revenues and job creation. Beshear, a Democrat, released a study earlier this year touting the creation of 12,000 jobs and nearly $1.2 billion in new revenue to health care providers as a result of expansion.

Thirty states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid, or plan to do so, to include all adults with incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, currently $16,243 for an individual.

So the bean counters and the nose counters have now merged and nerds with pocket protectors will be calculating the exact level of your federal benefits based upon scientific mathematical formulas while the supply of doctors shrinks and…

In states where ongoing discussions over Medicaid expansion have yet to be resolved, opponents are quick to cite the surging enrollments and costs. Last month, Republicans in the Florida House repeatedly warned about the costs before soundly defeating an expansion bill. “Every piece of metrics and data we have seen has showed the Medicaid rolls have exploded,” said state Rep. Blaise Ingoglia. “And it’s putting taxpayers and future prosperity at risk.”

Well, that’s the whole idea.