Wednesday, October 22, 2014

71% of Obamacare's "Newly Covered" Have Been Dumped into Medicaid

As you hear administration officials attempt to take a victory lap because an alleged 8 million more folks are covered due to Obamacare, keep in mind that 71% of those 8 million have been dumped into Medicaid, the worst form of coverage available in the United States.  One recent study concluded that health outcomes on Medicaid were tantamount having no coverage at all.

This is from Melissa Quinn at the Daily Signal:
The vast majority of Americans gaining health coverage under Obamacare actually qualified for Medicaid because of loosened eligibility —and that’s what boosted enrollment among those previously uninsured, according to a new report from The Heritage Foundation. 
The Obama administration has boasted that the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, would allow those previously uninsured to purchase quality, affordable health care. 
“The inescapable conclusion is that, when it comes to covering the uninsured, Obamacare so far is an expansion of Medicaid,” Heritage Foundation health policy experts Edmund F. Haislmaier and Drew Gonshorowski write in a research paper scheduled for release today. ... 
However, their paper says, more than 70 percent of those [8 to 8.5 million newly covered] can be traced to the expansion of Medicaid eligibility in 24 states:
Of the 8.5 million total individuals who gained health insurance coverage, 71 percent of that net coverage gain was attributable to Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid to able-bodied, working-age adults. ...