Max's Mad Mandate: The Baucus health bill will break 50 state budgets via medicaid

I chose to comment on an editorial written in the Wall Street Journal called Max's Mad Mandate. This article is pointing out some of the important flaws in the Max Baucus health care plan. It explains that the reason politicians are saying that medicaid pays for itself is because over 10 years it will break all 50 state budgets by permanently expanding medicaid, which is the government based program for health care for the poor. This plan wants medicaid to cover everyone up to at least 133% of the federal poverty level, making it easier for people to receive medicaid funded plans. Baucus wants to get more people into medicaid because it is the cheapest form for health care. It has the lowest reimbursement to medical providers. Baucus believes that if he can get more people on medicaid than the government can save money for itself.

There are problems in raising the income levels to get more medicaid eligible participants. To begin with, doctors resist seeing medicaid patients because they do not get as much money, so it would be hard for these medicaid participants to see doctors simply because fewer doctors are willing to see these patients. If they expand the medicaid population, knowing that doctors resist seeing these patients, it will create a whole new load of problems. The second problem is that the states are incredibly nervous that the federal government will shift more people into medicaid, but not provide each state with enough money to pay for the additional medicaid population. Basically, the burden would arrive at the states, which will cause a huge financial crisis. The federal government is trying to save money by transferring the budget concerning medicaid onto the states because the federal budget will benefit as they transfer this money. Because of the recession, the states are already in need of more money. This upsets the National Governors Association because their legislatures will get stuck with these medicaid bills while losing the freedom to manage their own bidgets. Obama said that he would not do anything to increase the federal government deficit, so Baucus is trying to push it onto the states. States need to provide a number of services themselves like education, transportation, and public safety to name a few. They would have less money to spend on these services, which are also necessary, if they are forced by the federal government to pay for this medicaid increase.

What do you think will happen in terms of Baucus' plan to push these costs onto the state governments? Will it go through? If so, what other problems could arise besides the states being in a huge deficit? Also, what will the doctors, and other medical providers, think of this increase in the medicaid population?