How will Congressional efforts to overhaul health care, in bills that grow by 500 pages with each draft, effect state government?

  1. Exploding Medicaid enrollment: John Hood last week called ObamaCare the Big Take because it would expand Medicaid rolls in the state by 44 percent or more.
  2. Disappearing federal bailout money: The expansion of a program that is bankrupting states will more or less coincide with the end of federal money to bail states out from their current financial straits. So there is great concern about the effect it will have on the rest of state spending.
  3. Losing choices: State employees who get insurance through the individual market may lose that option and be forced back into the state health plan, even obese smokers.
  4. Hurting state employees and taxpayers: Since there is no effective way to control cost in any of the bills before Congress, costs will rise even faster for state employees and taxpayers.
  5. Hurting state retirees:Then we can watch the unfunded liability for future retiree health benefits explode, too.