In a recent press conference, Democrat House Reps. Garland Pierce, Charles Graham and Elmer Floyd trotted out some well-worn talking points to advocate for Medicaid expansion.
All of them are misleading at best. Let’s review:
“Expanding Medicaid coverage would prevent the cost of treating the uninsured from being passed on to our hardworking taxpayers,” Pierce stated in a press release.
This is a common refrain used by expansion advocates, but Medicaid expansion doesn’t just target the uninsured. Indeed, a significant share of the newly eligible under expansion would come from the ranks of the insured. According to a Foundation for Government Accountability analysis of Census Bureau data, 63 percent of newly-eligible North Carolinians under Medicaid expansion are currently covered by private insurance.
Moving hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians from private pay to Medicaid would be devastating for hospitals’ bottom lines. Medicaid reimburses hospitals at a significantly lower rate than private insurance plans.
Next:
“Not only would our citizens benefit from having better health care, but new jobs would be created in the process”
This myth of Medicaid expansion job creation has been debunked several times, most recently here. Suffice it to say, the “studies” purporting to show job growth due to expansion are highly unscientific, rigged to get the desired outcome, and are funded by special interests that stand to gain from expansion.
Finally:
Pierce added there would be no increased taxes for residents to fund this expansion.
“Ninety percent of the cost would come from federal funds which we have already paid through our federal income tax”
Wrong. To repeat again, there is no magic pot of money waiting to be spent on North Carolina Medicaid expansion. The federal government is $22 trillion in debt, and running trillion dollar annual deficits. Every federal dollar required to fund expansion will need to be borrowed, and put the federal government further in debt.
Progressives supporting expansion claim to care about “the children,” but don’t hesitate to bury them deeper in debt and put their future financial well-being at risk.
