After years of rebuffing calls to participate in ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion, Pennsylvania Republican Governor Tom Corbett is changing his mind.
Sort of.
While the announcement comes as a bit of a surprise, it doesn’t appear to be a total loss for fiscal conservatives. (Others may disagree, of course.)
According to the terms of the agreement between Gov. Corbett’s office and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, Pennsylvania won’t simply be expanding its Medicaid program. Instead, it will use the extra dollars made available under ObamaCare to pay for (i.e. subsidize) private health insurance plans for newly eligible state Medicaid beneficiaries.
The agreement stipulates that Corbett’s alternative is being allowed as a five-year “demonstration project,” meaning that its future is not assured. Much will depend on how the project’s measurements are defined, if the reforms Corbett supports are to survive.
For now, Pennsylvania joins the ranks of Indiana, Arkansas and Iowa as states that are attempting to use ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion to decrease their uninsured population – without, of course, breaking the bank.
It’s hard to see how that will happen, but we now have at least four states offering themselves as very costly social science experiments. It should be interesting to see what the results will show.
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