Governments Release Medicaid Expansion Cost Estimates
Posted at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 11
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) drastically reduced his cost estimate for the Medicaid expansion under President Obama’s health care reform law, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
“Florida’s agency managing the Medicaid program released a new bottom-dollar cost estimate for the Medicaid expansion of between $5.1 billion and $9 billion late Wednesday evening – a course correction from recent weeks when it maintained the cost to Florida taxpayers could be $25.8 billion over the next decade.”
“The difference is largely over whether the federal government will make good on the legal requirement to fund at least 90 percent of the cost of expansion over the next decade… state budget-writers and economists warned the agency and Scott’s top health-care adviser weeks ago that the law currently requires the feds to do so, so they can’t legally assume it won’t happen.”
The Sacramento Bee reports that California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) “estimates that federal changes to Medicaid will cost the state $350 million extra in 2013-14, an amount mostly due to an expected increase in the number of people who are already eligible for Medi-Cal but don’t sign up until next year because enrollment will be easier and awareness higher.”
