Coburn, Parman: Medicaid ‘Rebalancing’ Plan is Obamacare By Another Name
Coburn, Parman: Medicaid ‘rebalancing’ plan is Obamacare by another name
By Tom Coburn and Larry Parman
The Oklahoma Health Care Authority’s Medicaid “rebalancing” plan is being considered by lawmakers. The plan is simply Obamacare Medicaid expansion rebranded. As conservatives concerned about fiscal responsibility, we urge lawmakers to reject it.
The rebalancing scheme is a policy that expands the scope and size of the federal government and increases dependency on government programs. It removes one more state barrier that separates us from a single-payer system in the United States. And of course it would further balloon state taxpayer spending by $1 billion (at a minimum) over the first 10 years and would increase the federal debt by $10 billion.
According to OHCA, the plan would add some 175,000 to the Medicaid rolls while promising to shift a similar number to the flawed Obamacare private market in the future (though it’s quite unlikely that portion of the plan will ever happen). Yet one study suggests that half or more of those targeted for expansion are already covered by job-related health insurance.
As the Congressional Budget Office noted, this creates an incentive not to work. The 175,000 targeted by OHCA are able-bodied adults. The proposal would increase from 27 percent to 33 percent the number of Oklahomans dependent on health care entitlements in addition to Medicare.