One of biggest impacts of Obamacare is the law’s expansion of Medicaid. A program designed to help the poor will now balloon to cover as many as 84 million Americans.

However, the Medicaid program is a disaster and why the Obama administration would double down on an increasingly expensive program that is failing to provide basic medical care remains an open question. A recent National Bureau of Economic Research study on Medicaid suggests that in many ways having Medicaid is no different than having no insurance at all. The Republican Policy Committee summarized the findings: