Maine, Medicaid, and the Gruber Principle

American Spectator ^ | November 13, 2017 | David Catron

[Twotone]

An aphorism much favored by my fellow dipsomaniacs goes thus: “Dogs are smarter than people. A dog won’t eat or drink anything that has made him sick in the past.” In other words, fill up Fido’s water bowl with Booker’s, let him slurp down enough to induce vomiting, and you’ll not get him near booze nor bowl again. What has this to do with Maine or Medicaid? Well, Maine experimented with Medicaid expansion 15 years ago, and it took the state a decade to recover from the hangover. Nonetheless, a majority of Maine’s voters approved another Medicaid expansion last Tuesday.

And it is no exaggeration to say that it took Maine 10 years to recover from its last Medicaid expansion. That debacle, initiated in 2002 by former Governor Angus King — who has since fled to D.C. where he now “serves” as a U.S. Senator — damaged Maine’s finances so badly that there was no money to pay hospitals for services rendered to Medicaid patients. It wasn’t until 2013 that the state was able to pay off that debt, whereupon Obamacare advocates began pimping expansion again. At the time, perhaps thinking of the above-quoted aphorism, Republican Legislator Ken Fredette observed:

I think it’s interesting that here we are talking about Medicaid expansion, when quite frankly, Medicaid expansion… is really what caused us to be in a decade of deficit that we are now just finally paying off. I find that ironic.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man,
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire ....

Rudyard Kipling

[vette6387]

Maine is making a second try at bankrupting itself. Hopefully, this time they will succeed. The “free lunch” isn’t really “free.”