Maybe the projections didn't see this, but anyone with half a brain did.
Medicaid is single payer. The whole goal of Nobamacare was to add millions more to the Medicaid rolls. The law would have forced every state to set up an exchange to enroll people with incomes of up to 400% of the poverty level in Medicaid. The pot sweetener was that Obama, aka Santy Claus, would pony up 100% of the additional state costs for the first year, and 90% after that.
The SCOTUS threw a wrench into the plan by ruling that the state exchanges were optional, not mandatory. 34 odd states declined to set up their own exchanges, because they saw that loading millions more onto strained Medicaid rolls was a recipe for disaster.
So the single player plan is stalled for a time.
Here's what's down the road. Multi millions in states that have not set up up exchanges are caught in the middle. They can't afford the outrageous premiums (even with federal subsidies), yet they make too much money for Medicaid. Those multi millions will go without insurance.
So the ranks of the uninsured will swell dramatically - to way more than the 30 million that Nobamacare was supposed to remedy.
Those states without exchanges are going to be excoriated and labeled every liberal class warfare slur in the book. The purpose will be to browbeat them into setting up exchanges and enrolling people into Medicaid. Can they withstand the pressure?
If the Medicaid expansion is beaten back, a huge stake is driven into the heart of Nobamacare.
****Those states without exchanges are going to be excoriated and labeled every liberal class warfare slur in the book.****
You are correct. Virginia has no exchanges or new Medicaid participation for the reasons you mentioned and here is the liberal sludge being spewed as you accurately pointed out. This is an excerpt from an editorial in the “Virginian Pilot” (See more at http://www.Pilotonline.com under “All Columnists”)
Only politicians in Washington can change the terms of that law; lawmakers in Richmond must make the best of the hand they’re dealt.
In this case, federal law requires Virginians to pay $10 billion in new taxes over the next five years. If Virginia doesn’t expand Medicaid, all that money will go to other states that have decided to expand the Medicaid eligibility criteria.
In effect, Virginia would be subsidizing efforts to improve health care and tamp down costs in other states while ignoring its own vulnerable residents.
If Virginia does expand Medicaid, the money would return to the commonwealth.
Thankfully that is up to 138% of the poverty level