Missouri Refuses to Fund Medicaid Expansion Under Obamacare

Missouri Republicans are fighting back against the imposition of Obamacare, stating that costs to the state far outweigh any potential benefits of the program. Obamacare wants states to expand their Medicaid rolls, with the state eventually picking up a significant portion of the tab; at the outset, though, for each state dollar spent on Medicaid expansion, the federal government will pick up $19.

Hospitals are claiming they want the Medicaid expansion, but state lawmakers say there just isn’t money available. The hospitals have been put between a rock and a hard place, since Obamacare phases out funding for hospitals that serve low-income, uninsured patients in an attempt to force the state to pay for it.

That is the entire Obamacare agenda. By forcing hospitals to care for people who are low-income, the federal government hopes to leverage the states. If the states refuse, the federal government cuts off funding but retains the regulations, forcing hospitals into bankruptcy. Then Democrats can claim that the private system has failed to provide for those needy folks, and enact a public option.