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16 million: number of Americans who become eligible for Medicaid under the health care law
The Temptations of the Court
Why the last hour of the Supreme Court argument over Obamacare matters most.
By Simon Lazarus
By the third day of Supreme Court arguments over the Affordable Care Act, people may be inclined to tune out. They shouldn’t. The final hour may be of far greater consequence than anything else the court hears this week. On Wednesday afternoon, the justices will vet a claim that targets the part of the new law that expands the Medicaid program. The Republican governors and attorneys general bringing the case against the health care law assert that the choice given states by the federal government—either accept coverage of approximately 16 million newly eligible beneficiaries or withdraw from Medicaid and lose all existing federal Medicaid funds—is “coercion.” Hence, they argue that with this provision, the federal government is unconstitutionally undermining state autonomy.
<...>
To back up this scary rhetoric, it’s necessary for opponents of the law to build it up as some unprecedented invasion of states’ independence. At best, these arguments are misleading, if not just plain wrong. For example, the challengers assert that the Medicaid expansion is a uniquely “onerous” imposition on the states. That gets the facts exactly backward. The statute actually provides that the federal government will shoulder 100 percent of the costs of adding newly eligible persons to Medicaid rolls, through 2016, dropping to a permanent level of 90 percent in 2020. That is a vast improvement from the average 57 percent in burden-sharing today. Moreover, several studies show that the new law will lead to a net benefit of $100 billion for state budgets through 2019.
Another dubious complaint is that, unlike past revisions to Medicaid, the health care law is an unprecedented ultimatum: Either accept it or lose all federal Medicaid funds. It would be a good argument, if it were remotely true. In fact, Congress has often amended Medicaid on precisely the same “all-or-nothing” basis. That’s nothing new, and this is no mere debaters’ point. If the latest expansion is invalid because it ties new conditions to the continuation of funding, then all past expansions—in essence the entire existing Medicaid program—is vulnerable.
Republican opponents to the Affordable Care Act have labeled its Medicaid provisions a subterfuge, contrived to “commandeer” state governments to help pay for the law’s implementation by driving Medicaid-eligible uninsured persons to enroll in Medicaid. But that is not how the law reads. In fact, it offers a variety of exemptions that ensure that anyone poor enough to qualify for Medicaid will be excluded from the law’s penalties for noncompliance with the mandate.
- more -
link to Slate article
Why the last hour of the Supreme Court argument over Obamacare matters most.
By Simon Lazarus
By the third day of Supreme Court arguments over the Affordable Care Act, people may be inclined to tune out. They shouldn’t. The final hour may be of far greater consequence than anything else the court hears this week. On Wednesday afternoon, the justices will vet a claim that targets the part of the new law that expands the Medicaid program. The Republican governors and attorneys general bringing the case against the health care law assert that the choice given states by the federal government—either accept coverage of approximately 16 million newly eligible beneficiaries or withdraw from Medicaid and lose all existing federal Medicaid funds—is “coercion.” Hence, they argue that with this provision, the federal government is unconstitutionally undermining state autonomy.
<...>
To back up this scary rhetoric, it’s necessary for opponents of the law to build it up as some unprecedented invasion of states’ independence. At best, these arguments are misleading, if not just plain wrong. For example, the challengers assert that the Medicaid expansion is a uniquely “onerous” imposition on the states. That gets the facts exactly backward. The statute actually provides that the federal government will shoulder 100 percent of the costs of adding newly eligible persons to Medicaid rolls, through 2016, dropping to a permanent level of 90 percent in 2020. That is a vast improvement from the average 57 percent in burden-sharing today. Moreover, several studies show that the new law will lead to a net benefit of $100 billion for state budgets through 2019.
Another dubious complaint is that, unlike past revisions to Medicaid, the health care law is an unprecedented ultimatum: Either accept it or lose all federal Medicaid funds. It would be a good argument, if it were remotely true. In fact, Congress has often amended Medicaid on precisely the same “all-or-nothing” basis. That’s nothing new, and this is no mere debaters’ point. If the latest expansion is invalid because it ties new conditions to the continuation of funding, then all past expansions—in essence the entire existing Medicaid program—is vulnerable.
Republican opponents to the Affordable Care Act have labeled its Medicaid provisions a subterfuge, contrived to “commandeer” state governments to help pay for the law’s implementation by driving Medicaid-eligible uninsured persons to enroll in Medicaid. But that is not how the law reads. In fact, it offers a variety of exemptions that ensure that anyone poor enough to qualify for Medicaid will be excluded from the law’s penalties for noncompliance with the mandate.
- more -
link to Slate article
17 replies
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How does all those people going on Medicaid help insurance companies??? This must not be so!!!
