people are considering following suit. do you think this will galvanize the republican party? yeah, i really do. if you are a red state governor, certainly representing a red stated, you ought to think long and hard before you opt in to obamacare. they tell you they are going to pay hundred percent of the increased coverage under medicaid, but you and i have heard this story before. federal government will pay for a period of time. they will pay hundred percent but that will be dialed back over time. today they only pay 55% of other medicaid costs. there is no free lunch. american people have to pay for this program. if you are a republican governor sitting in a red stated or sitting in any a better solution might very well be to opt out of obamacare and let the president try to figure out through thinks crazy state exchange scheme. heather: if that happens, they could be far reaching because the law top ambition is to expand coverage to 30 million
which in effect made it mandatory. it made it mandatory. now it s a little bit more optional. but it should be said, it remains an incredible deal for states. right now the federal government pace 57% of their medicaid costs. that is good enough for every single state in the union to participate. in this bill, going forward, they will pay 90% of the expansion, and 100% for the first three years. so i don t actually expect many states to sit it out. but that is the real change here. and by the way, one other point on romney who also passed the mandate, in massachusetts, one of the ways they got everybody covered is they brought medicaid up to 133% of poverty for everybody, exactly like the affordable care act does. and just on this point in terms of stats opting out, seven republican governors have already said that they will opt out and eight are leaning towards that way. so we have 15 states at this point saying they re not going to implement the law. we actually have a team u
with the expansion. it doesn t change the way which in effect made it mandatory. it made it mandatory. now it s a little bit more optional. but it should be said, it remains an incredible deal for states. right now the federal government pace 57% of their medicaid costs. that is good enough for every single state in the union to participate. in this bill, going forward, they will pay 90% of the expansion, and 100% for the first three years. so i don t actually expect many states to sit it out. but that is the real change here. and by the way, one other point on romney who also passed the mandate, in massachusetts, one of the ways they got everybody covered is they brought medicaid up to 133% of poverty for everybody, exactly like the affordable care act does. and just on this point in terms of state s opting out, seven republican governors have already said that they will opt out and eight are leaning towards that way. so we have 15 states at this point saying they re not going
cost california $2 billion additional dollars in the first six years. that s even considering the free money part of it. it averages out to a total addition of $2 billion. i m in the state of california right now where i can report to you that one of the considerations for the budget crunch here is to cut the number of public school days by 20 down to 160 days in order to balance the budget here. what are the odds in a state like colorado when they re struggling with education costs like that that they re going to say okay, let s add to our medicaid costs. you do have to keep in mind, whether they go with the government s program of medicaid expansion or çnot, they re sti going to have a lot of poor people in the state who are going to require some sort of health care. so i think the costs in a way have been exaggerated. but i share your concern. i don t think that all of these 26 states that went to court over this will ultimately say we re not going to participate, but places loo
like colorado when they re struggling with education costs like that that they re going to say okay, let s add to our medicaid costs. you do have to keep in mind, whether they go with the government s program of medicaid expansion or not, they re still going to have a lot of poor people in the state who are going to require some sort of health care. so i think the costs in a way have been exaggerated. but i share your concern. i don t think that all of these 26 states that went to court over this will ultimately say we re not going to participate, but places look texas where in ç that state alone you have 1.8 million people who would be impacted by this expansion of the medicaid. to me, when you look at the fact that texas has already severed their relationship with the federal government or another medicaid program providing preventive health care to women over a dispute of planned parenthood and the governor turned down stimulus money, this is catnip for a politician