ObamaCare’s Medicaid Burden'-www.iwf.org/
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
In commentary on the National Review Online, Marc Siegel outlines the costly Medicaid burden that ObamaCare imposes on states. "In fact, some argue that the mandated Medicaid spending is unconstitutional: In the forthcoming Supreme Court case that is best known for addressing the individual mandate, 26 states are also protesting the law’s Medicaid expansion, arguing that it will coerce them into assuming unworkable financial burdens. Is it any wonder that states are already responding to ObamaCare’s 'maintenance of effort' clause and the anticipated 2014 expansion by cutting services? Of course, many of the cuts are unjust and bureaucratic and arbitrary."
On the Heartland Institute, Marc Kilmer discusses the accounting tricks in the health care overhaul that were exposed by the CLASS Act. "A possible reason for the opposition of Waxman and others to repeal of CLASS is that it removes a key way Obama’s law improved the fiscal situation of the federal government, at least on paper. As the Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner noted in 'Bad Medicine: A Guide to the Real Costs and Consequences of the New Health Care Law,' CLASS was designed to help mask the costs of the Obama’s law. 'During the law’s first five years it will collect premiums, but not pay benefits,' Tanner wrote, 'As a result, over the first 10 years, the period conveniently included in the budget scoring window, the CLASS Act will run a surplus, collecting more in premiums than it pays out in benefits.'"