Medicaid Expansion: Opt-Out States Cover Those Who Opted-In

States who refused to expand Medicaid will pay for other states that did; an investment without returns unless they participate in the expansion program.

If the 23 states that have rejected expanding Medicaid under the 2010 health care law continue to do so for the next eight years, they’ll pay $152 billion to extend the program in other states — while receiving nothing in return.

This massive exodus of federal tax dollars from 2013 through 2022 would pay 37 percent of the cost to expand Medicaid in the 27 remaining states and Washington, D.C., over that time.

Most of the money, nearly $88 billion, would come from taxpayers in just five non-expansion states: Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia.

The findings are part of a McClatchy analysis of data from the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research center that’s advised states on implementing the health care law, the Affordable Care Act.

Read the complete report: http://bit.ly/1un023A

Source: The State

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/09/02/3655193_states-that-decline-to-expand.html?sp=/99/117/&rh=1#storylink=cpy