Comment: States jumping onto Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion has nothing to do with efficient, compassionate health care for their citizens, and everything to do with cashing in on a financial shell-game that states believe is a “free” federal gravy train.
Of course it’s not free in any sense. In money terms, the federal government just taxes the states’ citizens to pay for it. In freedom terms, in exchange for letting the IRS collect from a state’s citizens directly, Congress and federal bureaucrats take away a state’s freedom to run its own system. Our feckless feds can then also pull the rug out from under a state whenever said feds have a bad hair day.
Ohio is a current example–the feds free-money-suckered Ohio’s Gov. John Kasich into expanding Medicaid, and now Ohioans are feeling the pinch.
Pro-tip for Gov. Kasich: it’s a giant federal welfare program. Last time we checked, getting loads more people hooked on a giant federal welfare program was not a good thing.
“Debate over the next two-year state budget won’t start for seven months, but state officials already are wrestling with a looming billion-dollar budget hole, plus a $400 million local funding hit that includes bus services.”
“Federal regulators are putting an end to a state sales tax structure that allowed Ohio to collect hundreds of millions of dollars per year in federal Medicaid matching funds. That has Gov. John Kasich and legislative leaders staring at a $1.1 billion state funding loss in the next two-year budget.”
“Plus, the average county is looking at a loss of 7.5 percent of its sales tax collections, based on 2015 state figures. A number of rural counties, including Pickaway, would see sales tax losses exceeding 10 percent.”
Medicaid tax change to cost Ohio, counties
By Jim Siegel, The Columbus Dispatch • Sunday July 3, 2016