Forbes

Forbes: New Poll Confirms Voters Don’t Want State Obamacare Exchanges

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By Jonathan Ingram, Nic Horton and Josh Archambault – Mr. Ingram is Research Director, Mr. Horton is Policy Impact Specialist, and Mr. Archambault is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

Last week, the Foundation for Government Accountability released a groundbreaking poll of voters in federal exchange states that provides valuable insight into how voters want policymakers to respond to the pending King v. Burwell Supreme Court ruling.

In short, voters don’t want their state legislators to rescue Obamacare should the Supreme Court rule that health insurance subsidies cannot flow through HealthCare.gov. They blame Congress for a poorly written law and don’t want or expect states to clean up Washington’s mess. In fact, they’re prepared to vote against state lawmakers who try to set up Obamacare exchanges.

Voters Don’t Want To Live in An Obamacare State

If the Supreme Court strikes down subsidies in federal exchange states, voters don’t want their state legislators to rescue Obamacare. They see the issues presented in the King v. Burwell case as a problem created by Congress and the IRS; they don’t think states should bail them out.
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Forbes: Latest Florida Proposal Is Still Obamacare

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By Nic Horton, Jonathan Ingram, and Josh Archambault—  Mr. Horton is a Policy Impact Specialist, Mr. Ingram is Research Director, and Mr. Archambault a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

The Florida hospital lobby is persistent, to say the least. Barely two years after the Florida Legislature defeated Obamacare Medicaid welfare expansion, the hospital lobbyists are back at it, rolling out yet another Obamacare expansion plan, this time with the help of local chambers of commerce and other groups. The hospitals’ new coalition even has a clever name for itself: “A Healthy Florida Works.”

These actions have prompted some speculation that Florida lawmakers may flip flop on their principled opposition to this massive expansion of Medicaid welfare. Insiders are also reporting that the hospitals are preparing to dump even more money and resources into lobbying for Obamacare expansion—on top of the more than 250 lobbyists hospitals already deploy to Tallahassee every year.

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In the past, lawmakers have taken a thoughtful, careful approach to the Medicaid expansion question. After setting up a special committee to study every aspect of the issue and gathering all the facts, they rightly rejected every effort to implement it – even when that meant standing up to a wavering Republican governor, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and the full force of the Obamacare lobby. Continue reading →

Forbes: AR’s Private Option Architect Hopes To Revive The State’s Failed Obamacare Medicaid Experiment

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By Nic Horton, Jonathan Ingram and Josh Archambault.  Mr. Horton is a policy impact specialist, Mr. Ingram is research director, and Mr. Archambault a senior fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

Earlier this session, Arkansas lawmakers took an important first step in rolling back its disastrous Obamacare expansion. The legislature passed Act 46, which requires the Arkansas Department of Human Services to eliminate the Obamacare expansion by December 31, 2016. But a new bill proposed by one of the chief legislative architects of the failed Private Option experiment would reverse that progress and cement Obamacare into state law forever.

Days until the Private option is scheduled to end. 

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Forbes: There’s No Magic Pot Of Obamacare Medicaid Expansion Money

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By Nic Horton, Jonathan Ingram and Josh Archambault — Mr. Horton is Policy Impact Specialist, Mr. Ingram is Research Director, and Mr. Archambault is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

A recent report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) confirms what many policy experts have known for some time: states that reject Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion aren’t sending that Medicaid expansion money to other states. Instead, that money is simply never spent.

This revelation is important because numerous governors and state lawmakers from across the country have used this argument to justify their support for expanding Medicaid through Obamacare. However, as CRS succinctly explains, these arguments are entirely frivolous.

There’s No Fixed Pot of Obamacare Medicaid Money

Politicians have made the case for Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion based on the false idea that rejecting Medicaid expansion will send their states’ shares of Obamacare money to other states.

Governor John Kasich (R-OH), for example, has repeatedly claimed that rejecting Medicaid expansion would send Ohio’s ‘Medicaid expansion money’ to states like California. These false sentiments have been echoed repeatedly in Missouri, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming– just to name a few. Obamacare advocates promise that Medicaid expansion won’t increase federal spending, but will instead simply ‘bring back’ their own federal tax dollars.

The new CRS report explains that this claim is bogus: Continue reading →

Forbes: Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion Could Cause 2.6 Million Able-Bodied Adults To Drop Out Of Labor Force

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By Jonathan Ingram, Nic Horton and Josh Archambault.  Mr. Ingram is research director, Mr. Horton a Policy Impact Specialist, and Mr. Archambault a senior fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

One of the biggest myths pushed in statehouses across the country is that Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion will be an engine of economic growth. The Obama administration promises that more than 350,000 jobs would be created nationwide in 2015 if all states opted into Obamacare expansion.

But the truth is that expanding Medicaid to able-bodied adults will discourage work, create massive new welfare cliffs and ultimately shrink the economy, not grow it. A new report by the Foundation for Government Accountability outlines how Obamacare expansion could affect the labor force.

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Obamacare Expansion Discourages Work

Obamacare’s perverse design discourages work by creating a massive new welfare cliff for able-bodied adults. In states that expand Medicaid under Obamacare, single adults moving above 138 percent FPL would face premiums, deductibles, copays, coinsurance and other out-of-pocket costs nearly $2,000 higher (on average) than those they were subject to under Medicaid.

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Forbes: TN’s Obamacare Expansion Would Give ‘Free’ Cash To The Insured

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By Nic Horton, Jonathan Ingram, and Josh Archambault  — Mr. Horton is a Policy Impact Specialist, Mr. Ingram is Research Director, and Mr. Archambault a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

Gov. Bill Haslam (R-TN), who has previously stood strong against Obamacare expansion, announced just before Christmas that he will push the legislature to create a new entitlement for able-bodied adults in a fast-approaching special session. We’ve previously written on Gov. Haslam’s backroom deal to expand Obamacare and its questionable financing structure.

Legislators still have very little information on the plan, having only sketched out the “basic concepts” and leaving many details blank. The informational packet Haslam recently delivered to legislators, for example, noted that many “operational details will be finalized” at a later date. But what little is known leaves no room for excitement.

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Photo credit: Getty

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Forbes: How The New Congress Can Thoughtfully Repeal Obamacare’s Expansion

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By Jonathan Ingram, Nic Horton and Josh Archambault — Mr. Ingram is Research Director, Mr. Archambault is a Senior Fellow, and Mr. Horton is Policy Impact Specialist, at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

Tomorrow, a new Congress convenes, with the largest Republican majorities in nearly a century. These Republicans, elected on the promise of rolling back Obamacare, are ready to start chipping away at the law. One of their first targets? Obamacare’s immoral funding scheme that prioritizes able-bodied adults over the truly needy.

Obamacare Values The Able-Bodied Over The Truly Needy

The Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) rates determine how the cost of Medicaid will be divvied up between the federal government and the states. FMAP rates vary by state, depending on states’ per capita personal income. Under the traditional Medicaid rules, federal taxpayers reimburse states an average of 57 percent of the cost of providing Medicaid to poor children, pregnant women, seniors and individuals with disabilities. The match rates for these populations don’t change under Obamacare.

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PA as an illustration of the immoral funding formula under Obamacare’s expansion.

However, Obamacare introduced a new “enhanced” funding formula for its expansion population. If states expand Medicaid to working-age, able-bodied adults, federal taxpayers will pay for 90 percent of the cost of covering those adults. (The matching rate starts at 100 percent for most states and gradually declines to 90 percent by 2020.)

But the vast majority of the able-bodied adults covered under Obamacare expansion have never been considered among the most vulnerable, have no disabilities keeping them from work, have no dependent children and don’t typically qualify for other types of welfare, including cash assistance and long-term food stamps. Why should federal taxpayers pay states nearly twice as much to cover able-bodied adults as they pay to cover the truly needy? Continue reading →

Forbes: How States Can Unwind Obamacare Expansion And Restore The Working Class

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By Jonathan Ingram, Nic Horton and Josh Archambault — Mr. Ingram is Research Director, Mr. Archambault is a Senior Fellow, and Mr. Horton is Policy Impact Specialist, at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

In November, voters across the country elected new Republican governors and legislators, many of whom campaigned heavily against Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. Although some of these new leaders (including Governor-elect Asa Hutchinson in Arkansas) will be taking control of states that have opted into Obamacare expansion, there is new hope that these governors and state legislators will work to reduce government dependency and restore the working class.

One idea rapidly gaining currency among legislators and new governors’ transition teams is the possibility of renewing Medicaid expansion on a temporary basis for those who have already signed up, but immediately freezing enrollment going forward. This approach would stop the bleeding, but allow for a more gradual wind down of the program and allow enrollees to keep their plans until they increased their incomes, transitioning out of eligibility. Continue reading →

Forbes: Arkansas Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion — Now What?

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By Nic Horton, Jonathan Ingram,  and Josh Archambault — Mr. Horton is Policy Impact Specialist, Mr. Ingram is Research Director, and Mr. Archambault is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

 

Arkansas has received its share of national attention the past few months, culminating in the spectacular defeat of incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Pryor by GOP Congressman Tom Cotton. In an electoral thumping powered by opposition to Obamacare, last night also saw the defeat of every Democratic candidate for Congress and all statewide offices.

But there’s one more Obamacare loss likely on the horizon in the Natural State: Arkansas’s disastrous “Private Option” Obamacare expansion. In fact, news is so bad that incoming state Senate President and Private Option cheerleader Jonathan Dismang may have to curtail his time campaigning for Obamacare expansion in other states.

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Governor-elect Asa Hutchinson has expressed concerns about the cost of Arkansas’ ObamaCare expansion, and he’ll be working with a legislature that’s looking for a way out of the program. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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Forbes: Herbert’s Obamacare Expansion Won’t Work — And Neither Will Its Enrollees

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By Jonathan Ingram, Nic Horton and Josh Archambault —  Mr. Ingram is Research Director, Mr. Horton is a Policy Impact Specialist, and Mr. Archambault a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

The Obama administration and liberal activists hope that Gov. Gary Herbert (R-UT) will be the next governor lured into Obamacare expansion on the false promise of flexibility and free money. Herbert says he is nearing the end of negotiations with the federal government and wants to call a special session for the legislature to sign off on the Obamacare expansion plan. Unfortunately, most of the details of the plan remain a mystery. He’s given a few snippets of information here and there, but has thus far not released a detailed proposal. Continue reading →