At least for now (although a statewide referendum may be pending), Arizona governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, has succeeded in her efforts to implement a key part of Obamacare in her state.  Brewer has very aggressively — and entirely voluntarily — spearheaded the charge to implement Obamacare’s massive Medicaid expansion on her watch.  She now claims, however, that she’s not really implementing Obamacare — or at least not any significant portion of it.  In a recent interview reported by the Associated Press, Brewer said, “This business that this is Obamacare is a little bit interesting.”  She added, “It is a very, very, very tiny portion of the Obama health care.”  

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that what Brewer calls a “very, very, very tiny portion” of the health care overhaul will result in an estimated 11 million new people being dumped into Medicaid under Obamacare, where they’ll receive subpar care at taxpayer expense.  Of the net 30 million that the CBO projects will become newly insured under Obamacare, those dumped into Medicaid will account for more than a third.  (The CBO projects that, even after ten years of Obamacare, another 30 million people will remain uninsured.)  Some of these 11 million people have employer-sponsored insurance today, but the CBO projects that roughly 4 million people will lose such coverage under Obamacare.