President Trump may be on the verge of signing off on a new plan allowing for the partial expansion of Medicaid that would in effect further entrench Obamacare.
Over at the Federalist, Chris Jacobs reports that the Trump administration is finalizing plans to give states more flexibility to expand Medicaid. Under Obamacare as implemented after the 2012 Supreme Court ruling, states have the option of accepting the program’s Medicaid expansion and the money that comes with it, or rejecting the money and not participating in the expansion.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been looking at ways to move beyond this all-or-nothing approach, and instead give states more leeway to partially expand the program.
While no doubt this will be pitched as an effort return power to the states, in reality what it will do is encourage more states to sign up for Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion by effectively reducing the cost of doing so, thus further entrenching the program.
Jacobs notes that this move could face blowback on the Left by reducing Medicaid enrollment in states that have already expanded under the current rules and may scale back if given more flexibility. Still, on net, he writes that the cost could be “upwards of $100 billion.”
Trump has already failed to deliver on his promise to repeal Obamacare. There is no sign that Democrats are ready to cave and provide funding for his signature campaign promise, the border wall. It would be startling if he chose this time to take proactive steps to expand Obamacare.
