Under latest health-care bill, red states would benefit disproportionately [View all]

[octoberlib]

By David Weigel September 20 at 6:00 AM


At its core, the bill introduced by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) would implement a decades-old conservative concept, capping the amount that taxpayers spend on Medicaid and giving states full control over the program. As he’s sold the legislation to conservative governors and activists, Graham has described it as a possible triumph for federalism, and a way to end the progressive dream of universal health care managed from Washington.


What’s new, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, is a discrepancy in state-by-state funding that would be flattened out by the block grants. Most states used the ACA’s funding to expand Medicaid; some Republican-run states, liberated by the Supreme Court’s decision to make the funding optional, did not. As a result, 14 of the 15 states that would stand to gain from block grants are run by Republicans; Democratic megastates including California, New York and Massachusetts would lose billions of dollars, a feature both Graham and Cassidy have talked up to conservatives.

“We will either have to kick hundreds of thousands of people off of health care, or we will have to dramatically increase taxes,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), in one of a string of Monday night floor speeches by Democrats.

“No longer will four blue states get 40 percent of the money,” said Graham to Breitbart. “A state like Mississippi, they get a 900 percent increase. South Carolina gets 300 percent.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/under-latest-health-care-bill-red-states-would-benefit-disproportionately/2017/09/19/fe26e61a-9cb3-11e7-9083-fbfddf6804c2_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_redstates-735a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.55e459784f0a



Apparently, Republicans love them some redistribution of wealth.