{"id":9098,"date":"2015-12-05T22:05:49","date_gmt":"2015-12-06T03:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/?p=9098"},"modified":"2016-11-16T19:06:27","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T00:06:27","slug":"medicaid-expansion-early-signs-show-good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/medicaid-expansion-early-signs-show-good-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicaid Expansion: Early Signs Show Good News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last spring, I argued that, \u201cthe economic and social arguments for Medicaid expansion are overwhelmingly positive<\/a>.\u201d A recent report from the Kaiser Health Foundation<\/a> confirms this argument, and adds additional insight to the advantages of expanding Medicaid.<\/p>\n

The Kaiser report analyzed all 50 states\u2019 Medicaid programs. In doing so, it compared those states that expanded (\u201cexpansion states\u201d) from those states that did not expand (\u201cnon-expansion states\u201d). The differences are illuminating. In expansion states, Medicaid Enrollment increased by 18.0%, on average, compared to 5.1% in non-expansion states. This finding is unsurprising; states that expanded Medicaid should have had higher enrollments. The more surprising finding, however, was that expansion states\u2019 Medicaid spending growth was 3.4% compared to non-expansion states\u2019 spending growth of 6.9%. In other words, non-expansion states had higher growth in state spending than expansion states. These findings are breathtaking: non-expansion states have spent more state money to cover less people.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, expansion states have seen an economic boom from federal dollars. A Deloitte study<\/a> found that in Kentucky, Medicaid expansion would create 40,000 jobs and $30 billion to the state economy. In addition, the study found that expansion would save the state budget $100 million. States that did not expand suffer from the \u201cwoodwork effect,\u201d in which previously eligible citizens come out of the woodwork to get Medicaid. The state has to pay for this without federal funding so state budgets bear the burden.<\/p>\n

Given this positive news, the politics of Medicaid seem to be changing<\/a>. Kentucky\u2019s newly elected governor, Matt Bevin, ran on a platform to repeal the Medicaid expansion. Since his election, he has pivoted away from this position. Many states\u2014including Missouri, Virginia, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming\u2014are considering expansion<\/a> as well. And, in a twist from conventional wisdom, a recent Kaiser Foundation poll found that the majority of Republicans (56%)<\/a> in non-expansion states support Medicaid Expansion. Medicaid Expansion is not a Republican vs. Democrat issue. It is a common sense vs. intransigence dispute. As the Kaiser and Deloitte study indicate, the longer states wait to expand, the more their economy and health will suffer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last spring, I argued that, \u201cthe economic and social arguments for Medicaid expansion are overwhelmingly positive.\u201d A recent report from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":9099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[777,670],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-9098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amicus","category-uncategorized","tag-affordable-care-act","tag-medicaid"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/80\/2015\/12\/healthcare.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZrWS-2mK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9098"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}