or how to cut off your nose to spite your face....or how to throw the poor under the bus and look stupid. ( All bolding/underlining and bracketed comments are mine.)

Governor reaffirms stand against Medicaid expansion in face of study showing $1 billion benefit

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Gov. Robert Bentley reiterated his stance against Medicaid expansion under the federal Affordable Care Act today following the release of a UAB study estimating $1 billion in new tax revenue under such an expansion.

"Gov. Bentley will not expand Medicaid under its current structure," said governor's spokesman Jeremy King. "Our priority right now is fixing the system we have, not expanding a broken system."

The statement came as a direct response to the research of University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health economists David Becker and Michael Morrisey who say that the expansion in Alabama will provide Medicaid coverage to an additional 300,000 people and generate $20 billion in economic activity which will add $1.7 billion in tax revenue to Alabama coffers from 2014 to 2020.

Take away $770 million in estimated Alabama costs and the net gain in tax revenue is about $930 million or nearly $1 billion, Becker said.

In an interview, UAB's Becker said the purpose of the study is not to be partisan or an activist but to "inform the debate."

"What is the question at hand? It is not whether one likes the Affordable Health Care Act. It is not whether health care spending is out of control and this will make it worse," Becker said. "What this should be about is what is best for Alabama."

The federal law is in place and there will be Medicaid expansion across the country subsidized by federal tax dollars - some from Alabama - whether the state chooses to participate or not, Becker said.

UAB, which has the largest hospital in the state and one of the largest public hospitals in the country, released the report this morning saying the research was a "win-win" for the state and Medicaid-eligible patients.

Under the federal law, dubbed Obamacare, the federal government will cover 100 percent of health care expenditures from 2014 through 2016. During these first years, Alabama would be responsible for a share of the administrative costs of the expansion. The federal matching rate declines after 2016, falling gradually to 90 percent in 2020. As a result, the annual costs to Alabama increase from $39 million in 2014 to $222 million in 2020 for a total over the years of $771 million.

The expansion would be to adults 19 to 64 with family incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. The U.S. Supreme Court, in upholding most of the Affordable Care Act, last June, ruled that states can choose to opt in or out of the Medicaid expansion.

Bentley has previously said he opposes expansion of Medicaid "under its current structure."

In October, Bentley created the Alabama Medicaid Advisory Commission, appointing numerous political and health care officials, to come up with a plan to lower Medicaid costs. (I wonder how much THAT cost?)In his executive order, Bentley called on the commission to recommend, among other things, "new care delivery models that support quality care and cost control."

The recommendations are to be presented to the governor by Jan. 31, 2013. To get full federal matching funds for the Medicaid expansion, the states must have a program set to go by Jan. 1, 2014.

"The commission will identify ways to increase efficiency and help ensure the program is sustainable for the long term," governor's spokesman King said in his statement today. "Reforms will also benefit patient care."

Becker said an unmeasured benefit to Medicaid expansion would be a healthier populace.

"If chronic conditions are better managed; if mental health is better managed, we have people who are more productive," Becker said. "That's certainly good for the state."

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/12/gov ... rt_m-rpt-2

Out-of-control ego, knee-jerk hatred, and temper tantrums are always ugly/stupid ~ and even worse in [alleged] "adults" ~

Sooz