Our Health Policy Matters

There’s a simple way to calculate just how much a state will save in the long term by expanding the Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.  Just multiply whatever it says it will cost by 9. That’s because the federal government will contribute at least $9 worth of match for every dollar a state spends on Medicaid expansion. By now, we’ve all heard just how big some of the match numbers will be.  Based just on the estimates provided by the state itself in its January 2012 Supreme Court brief , Florida, for example, would gain at least $3.2 billion annually. But Florida’s Governor has openly fought the expansion until recent weeks, and has yet to say whether or not he will support it in any form.  He’s not the only one.  A weekend article in the Washington Post reported that as many as thirteen states may be leaning against the expansion, versus 17 plus the District of Columbia that are pursuing it. According to the analysis on which t...

There’s a simple way to calculate just how much a state will save in the long term by expanding the Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.  Just multiply whatever it says it will cost by 9. That’s because the federal government will contribute at least $9 worth of match for every dollar a state spends on Medicaid expansion. By now, we’ve all heard just how big some of the match numbers will be.  Based just on the estimates provided by the state itself in its January 2012 Supreme Court brief , Florida, for example, would gain at least $3.2 billion annually. But Florida’s Governor has openly fought the expansion until recent weeks, and has yet to say whether or not he will support it in any form.  He’s not the only one.  A weekend article in the Washington Post reported that as many as thirteen states may be leaning against the expansion, versus 17 plus the District of Columbia that are pursuing it. According to the analysis on which t...