Alabama’s pain is self-inflicted

It always seemed like common sense for states to accept the federal government’s expansion of Medicaid, since it could greatly improve health care in a state while costing the state relatively little.

Fourteen states, however, chose to ignore practicality and the common good and make a political statement at the expense or their citizens’ well-being. Predictably, Alabama is among the 14.

Now the Rand corporation has backed up what always seemed like a no brainer with figures. The study, published in the journal Health Affairs, concludes that the 14 states that have said they will opt out of accepting the new Medicaid funds will get $8.4 billion less in federal funding, have to spend an extra $1 billion in uncompensated care, and end up with about 3.6 million fewer insured residents.

The conclusion of the Rand study is that in terms of coverage, cost and federal payments, states would do best to expand Medicaid.

A story in The Washington Post by Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas puts it like this: “So then, the math works out like this: States rejecting the expansion will spend much more, get much less, and leave millions of their residents uninsured. That’s a lot of self-inflicted pain to make a political point.”

Very true. And very typical of government in Alabama.