Obamacare Will Cost States $118 Billion - Congressional Report...

The healthcare reform bill passed last year will cost states at least an additional $118.04 billion through 2023 due to their increased Medicaid costs, according to a new congressional report.
That’s nearly double the Congressional Budget Office's recent estimate of $60 billion through 2021.

“The enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March 2010 was the largest expansion of [Medicaid] since its inception more than 45 years ago,” according to a statement from the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, which jointly produced the report.

“Half of those obtaining healthcare coverage under the new law will get it through Medicaid. The committee report provides a state-by-state analysis of the financial impact the new healthcare law will have on states and demonstrates the unsustainable fiscal burden this new law will foist upon taxpayers.”

The joint congressional report “is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of state government estimates regarding the cost of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to state Medicaid programs,” the report states.

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said: “Governors of both political parties were clear when Congress was debating the $2.6 trillion health law that they could not afford a massive expansion in Medicaid. Washington didn’t listen and plowed forward instead by putting 16 million Americans onto the Medicaid rolls to keep the federal price tag down.

“With this report, we see the true cost to states, who are already facing a collective $175 billion budget shortfall, of this unsustainable expansion.”

The report’s state-by-state breakdown shows that California will spend at least another $19.4 billion on Medicaid, and Texas will be forced to spend another $27 billion — more than the program’s entire annual budget today.

Obamacare will cost Florida taxpayers $12.9 billion through 2023. Louisiana will have to pay an additional $7 billion; New York, 2.8 billion; and Virginia, $2.2 billion.

Even a less populated state, Iowa, will have to take on 100,000 new Medicaid enrollees, and spend an added $250 million.

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