Proof That Refusing to Expand Medicaid = Killing Poor People

Every governor who refuses the Obamacare expansion of Medicare is guilt of mass murder. Period. Think about that before you cave to the repugs in the state senate, Steve Beshear, you cowardly worm. 

Jon Walker at Firedoglake:

The weird federal-state design of Medicaid has created a natural experiment. A few states have already chosen to expand their Medicaid program to low-income childless adults, like the Affordable Care Act will do in 2014. This allowed researchers to compare the impact these Medicaid expansions have relative to neighboring states that didn’t expand it. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, show increasing the number of people on Medicaid did indeed reduce adjusted all-cause mortality, implying that providing people with basic public health insurance does save lives. From the study.

So which are the poor-people-murdering states? Steve Benen has the map:

When the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act (ACA) last month, it also ruled that states couldn’t be forced to expand Medicaid—turning one of the law’s key provisions for covering the uninsured into a choice states could make for themselves.

The map above lays out the state of play. It uses comments by state leaders to assess each state’s likelihood of participating in the expansion (it’s worth noting that in most states, the expansion would likely need to be approved by both the legislature and the governor, something the map’s assessment take into account). Using numbers from a widely cited study by the Kaiser Family Foundation (pdf), it shows how many uninsured people in each state would benefit, as well as how much federal money each state would be rejecting if it doesn’t proceed. As new developments affect the picture, we’ll keep updating the map.

Here's Kentucky's status:

Undecided

Population Uninsured: 659,900  (15% of state)

Uninsured eligible for expanded Medicaid:  250,700

Federal money available for Medicaid (through 2019):  $11.9 Billion

Gov. Steve Beshear (D): "We continue to review the Supreme Court's opinion, particularly on the Medicaid portion of the Affordable Care Act to determine what our options may be." Republicans, who control the state Senate, have called the eventual cost of the expansion "unsustainable." Democrats control the House and back the expansion.

 
Tell Gov. Cowardly Waste of Oxygen to sack up and grab that $11.9 billion from the taxpayers in richer, smarter states before they change their minds.