Expanding Medicaid Is Not A Good Thing

[FaninAma]

I keep seeing the Democrats touting the expansion of Medicaid as a positive development. It isn't. It is a 3rd rate plan accepted by fewer and fewer physicians. It is breaking state budgets. If this is truly the biggest success of Obamacare then the law is truly worse than I even thought it was. Expansion will literally kill those who truly need it by diluting its safety net function.

Actually, it was apparent from the very beginning that expanding Mediciad was the primary goal of Obamacare.

[jkjsooner]

I don't have the numbers but I'd guess the expansion is not nearly as costly as many assume. The current medicare pays for old people - you know those people who run up hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses just before they die. Expanding to cover a younger crowd isn't going to have nearly the expense on a per person basis.

As for a 3rd rate plan, it's still better than nothing which is the alternative for many. To argue that a bad plan is worse than no plan is just absurd.

This kind of reminds me of the whole argument about congress not using the healthcare exchanges. Again, the exchanges are something extra as a benefit for those who don't have insurance. The argument conservatives make is completely illogical. Using their line of reasoning, if they got their way and got rid of Obamacare (and the exchanges) then they should request that congress get rid of its health plan altogether since they obviously want to compare congress to the lowest common denominator.

(That doesn't even bring up the fact that congress's health plan is an employee sponsored plan just like 90% of us have.)

[achiro]

I don't have the numbers but I'd guess the expansion is not nearly as costly as many assume. The current medicare pays for old people - you know those people who run up hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses just before they die. Expanding to cover a younger crowd isn't going to have nearly the expense on a per person basis.

As for a 3rd rate plan, it's still better than nothing which is the alternative for many. To argue that a bad plan is worse than no plan is just absurd.

This kind of reminds me of the whole argument about congress not using the healthcare exchanges. Again, the exchanges are something extra as a benefit for those who don't have insurance. The argument conservatives make is completely illogical. Using their line of reasoning, if they got their way and got rid of Obamacare (and the exchanges) then they should request that congress get rid of its health plan altogether since they obviously want to compare congress to the lowest common denominator.

(That doesn't even bring up the fact that congress's health plan is an employee sponsored plan just like 90% of us have.)

Wow, completely uninformed yet a strong opinion of the topic. First, Medicare and medicaid are not the same thing, figure that out and then get back to us.

[jkjsooner]

Wow, completely uninformed yet a strong opinion of the topic. First, Medicare and medicaid are not the same thing, figure that out and then get back to us.

You got me on that one. I do know the difference but for some reason I thought this was billed as medicare expansion (meaning the fed program). Oh well, forget the first part of what I said about the cost.

That being said, the rest of what I said still holds. To criticize that a benefit isn't great when the alternative is no benefit is absurd.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

I keep seeing the Democrats touting the expansion of Medicaid as a positive development. It isn't. It is a 3rd rate plan accepted by fewer and fewer physicians. It is breaking state budgets. If this is truly the biggest success of Obamacare then the law is truly worse than I even thought it was. Expansion will literally kill those who truly need it by diluting its safety net function.

Actually, it was apparent from the very beginning that expanding Mediciad was the primary goal of Obamacare.Obeary said long ago that he wants to get to Single Payer Socialized Medicine. Obamacare is an intermediate step to ruin the healthcare insurance industry, and disrupt the medical industry, in order to have the masses scream for Socialized Med.

[FaninAma]

Jk, a bad program ran by the government at the expense of the taxpayers is worse than no program. That is the crux of the problem. Too many people like yourself are content to have the federal government throw a few hundred billion dollars down a rat hole just so you can sleep at nights. You never look at the results of all the wasted money.

There are several private models for indigent health care that are more efficient and render a much higher level of care than the medicaid program. It is stupid that the federal government rquires that all the money runs through Washington so they can dole it back out to the states. Of course if they didn't do that the federal government would have no basis for being as big as it is or yielding the powerover our lives that it does.