Rejecting Obamacare is going to cost them.

From Daily Kos
(Click on the link to read more)

The 14 states that so far have refused to accept Medicaid can collectively expect to lose $8.4 billion in federal transfer payments, spend an additional $1 billion in health care for the uninsured, and force 3.6 million people to remain uninsured. That's according to a new analysis from the RAND corporation, and the conclusions are clear.

    "Our analysis shows it's in the best economic interests of states to expand Medicaid under the terms of the federal Affordable Care Act," said Carter Price, the study's lead author and a mathematician at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

    "States that do not expand Medicaid will not receive the full benefit of the savings that will result from providing less uncompensated care," Price said. "Furthermore, these states will still be subject to the taxes, fees and other revenue provisions of the Affordable Care Act, without reaping the benefit of the additional federal spending which will costs those states economically." [...]

    "State policymakers should be aware that if they do not expand Medicaid, fewer people will have health insurance, and that will trigger higher state and local spending for uncompensated medical care," Price said. "Choosing to not expand Medicaid may turn out to be the more-costly path for state and local governments."

Poorest states hurt themselves.

From Daily Kos
(It is tragic, but the Republican philosophy is that, "if you are poor, we don't care if you die nedlessly.")

States that rejected Medicaid [expansion] also have most uninsured, poorest health

Sadly, the states that have the greatest need to expand Medicaid also have the Republican leaders who are refusing to participate. That's according to an analysis from the Los Angeles Times, which states health data to determine levels of coverage and overall health status in the states.

    Colon cancer deaths in states opposing Medicaid expansion, for example, are an average of 16% higher than in pro-expansion states, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of state health data.

    Deaths from breast cancer are 8% higher on average in anti-expansion states. And adults under 65 are 40% more likely on average to have lost six or more teeth from decay, infection or gum disease. [...]

    Yet most state leaders who are fighting the Medicaid expansion have advanced few alternative plans to tackle their states' health shortfalls. That means that, at least in the short term, America's unhealthiest states could fall even further behind as the Affordable Care Act is implemented.

Arguing against your own best interests

Psychology 101

It needs to be asked - why are Conservatives so ignorant?

From Daily Kos

Rick Perry strikes again.

Gov. Rick Perry says that the free expansion of Medicaid for the state included in Obamacare is just one big trick by the federal government.

    "Texas will not be held hostage to the Obama administration's attempt to force us into this fool's errand," he said, flanked by Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and Reps. Joe Barton and Michael Burgess.

Rick Perry isn't entirely clear on what being held hostage means, apparently. Three years of free money to make people healthier isn't effective hostage taking, but hell, it's Perry, and it makes more sense than this statement, from the same press conference: "It was federally sponsored jailbreak that betrayed the most fundamental promise any government makes its citizens." Okay, then.

But this is Dumb Pronouncements From Texas About Medicaid Day, so chime on in, Dick Armey.

    Bottom line is that the status quo doesn't make sense for providers or patients. Neither does the Medicaid expansion called for by ObamaCare, which seeks to double down on a failed system while offering no constructive path to reform. As Texans, we can do better.

The answer, of course, is block grants. The feds should just give Texas a chunk of money to spend how it wants and to figure out on its own what it's going to do when the money runs out. Because the money will run out. That's a feature of the block grant plan: It's the system Republicans have devised to kill off Medicaid once and for all.

Right now, Texas has 2,036,000 uninsured adults [pdf]. Out of those 2 million, 1,748,000 would be eligible for Medicaid under the expansion, if Texas were to take it (289,000 are currently eligible, but are not enrolled). In one year, as many as 2,938 lives could be saved in Texas with this expansion. But for Rick Perry and Dick Armey, those preventible deaths don't matter. Because freedom.

Good politics for Republicans