Thursday, July 5, 2012

As If You're Really Surprised

This is especially why I've been harping so much on Brian Sandoval's threat to blow up the Medicaid expansion part of the Affordable Care Act. Can you guess who needs it the most?

Many of the governors threatening to stymie implementation of the Affordable Care Act preside over states with high uninsurance rates, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. [...]

[... M]any of the states with high-profile conservative governors vowing to stand athwart the ACA’s progress, by refusing to expand their Medicaid programs and erecting hurdles to establishing insurance marketplaces, would stand to gain the most from successful implementation of the law.

With a 21 percent uninsured rate, Florida is tied with Nevada and New Mexico for second to last place in the country. But conservative Gov. Rick Scott is vowing to opt out of a Medicaid expansion, almost fully financed by the federal government, now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the feds cannot threaten states with the loss of all their Medicaid funds for refusing to expand the program.

Wow. We're tied with Florida and New Mexico for second to last place. We're (again!) at the bottom of the list, and our Governor wants to torpedo the very program that can fix this very serious problem? What is he thinking? Oh wait, I need not ask again.

Seriously, this is another reason why Nevada can NOT afford to turn down ACA Medicaid expansion. We have far too many uninsured people. And the more we work to bring this number down, the lower we can bring down health care costs for everyone.

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