As the Newark Star-Ledger reports, Republican Gov. Chris Christie has agreed to expand New Jersey's Medicaid program to cover 300,000 uninsured residents, a decision that validates a key part of Obamacare:
As for his decision to expand Medicaid, the Republican governor, a critic of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, could reap up to $300 million by expanding the state program in the coming budget year…
…Before passage of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, people without children were not eligible unless they applied for welfare and earned no more than $140 a month. Allowing the expansion would reduce the burden on hospitals to treat uninsured patients, and the state, which partly reimburses those costs. The revised Medicaid program would shift 100 percent of the costs to the federal government for these new enrollees for the first three years, then gradually taper it to 90 percent. The state could expect $1.7 billion a year to cover the costs.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has received word from 39 governors about their plans for Medicaid: 22 — including nine Republicans — who said they would expand it, while 17 have turned it down.
Republicans did everything they could publicly to criticize Obamacare before the 2012 election, and many of those words could come back to haunt them in 2014. As we've said here before, there are several features of Obamacare that, once fully implemented, may look pretty good to a majority of Americans.
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Wow, I'm so happy for Gov. Christie (D-NJ).
"My top priority continues to be to make Florida the global leader for job creation, But we also have to be sensitive to the needs of the poorest and the weakest among us who struggle to access affordable, high-quality healthcare." Rick Scott (D-FL)
Medicaid expansion "makes sense for the physical and fiscal health of Michigan." Rick Snyder (D-MI)
"With this move, we will secure a federal revenue stream to cover the costs of the uninsured who already show up in our doctor's offices and emergency rooms, Health care premiums are raised year after year to account for expenses incurred by our hospitals as they provide care to the uninsured." Jan Brewer (D-AZ)
"I can't look at the disabled, I can't look at the poor, I can't look at the mentally ill, I can't look at the addicted and think we ought to ignore them. For those that live in the shadows of life, those who are the least among us, I will not accept the fact that the most vulnerable in our state should be ignored. We can help them." John Kasich (D-OH)
"My fiscal year 2014-2015 budget will provide 78,000 additional Nevadans with health insurance coverage through Medicaid, which is estimated to save the state general fund approximately $17 million in mental health savings.” Brian Sandoval (D-NV)
“Over the past few months, I’ve done a lot of listening. I’ve met with health advocates, hospital leaders, both rural and urban providers, members of the business community, legislators and many others. We have an obligation to provide an adequate level of basic health care services for those most in need in our state.” Susan Martinez (D-NM)
“We try to leave the politics out in the hallway when we make these decisions. In the end, it comes down to are you going to allow your people to have additional Medicaid money that comes at no cost to us, or aren’t you? We’re thinking, yes, we should.” Jack Dalrymple (D-ND)