NEW: Group Calls on RI to Opt Out of Health Exchange and Medicaid Expansion
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
The Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity today issued a report recommending the Ocean State get rid of its benefits exchange opt out of accepting federal funds to expand its Medicaid program.
"The expansion of health insurance is not free and our state simply cannot afford an expanded entitlement program. Rhode Island can save jobs as well as hundreds of millions of budget dollars by choosing not to implement some of its optional provisions," said Mike Stenhouse, CEO of the Center.
The report suggests employers may have a disincentive to expand under the health law thanks to requirements and resitrcitions that come for businesses which have 50 or more employees.
Also included in the report are discussions about the different groups of people who would obtain insurance or premium subsidies through the Exchange or via Medicaid, along with details the state's portion of the expense.
"There is a major misconception that the costs of the newly insured will be covered 100% by federal funding,” Stenhouse said. “This is not true and our state's fragile economy cannot absorb any more expense. Nor can we afford to lose any more jobs; we should protect our businesses from the job-killing employer mandate. Haven't we learned yet that chasing federal dollars often ends up costing our state in the long run?”
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Comments:
Donnn Roach
5:30pm on Tuesday, July 10, 2012
More propaganda and lies from the "end the minimum wage" crowd.
GoLocal, if you keep publishing articles this unbalanced, I'm going to refer to you as FoxNewsRI.
michael riley
8:08am on Wednesday, July 11, 2012
This is a real study by people attempting to help Rhode Island. All proposals are worth listening to. It is clear that the health care law as enacted means higher taxes and high costs of implementation with no guarantees of bending the cost curve.500 billion dollars will be cut from medicare. People want to know what that means for them.
mgriley
David Bibeault
8:17am on Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Part of Obamacare's plan to save the Federal Government money is to dump the costs onto the States. The Medicaid component will be disasterous to Rhode Island and many other States. And our Governor and Lt. Governor are like Captains on the Titanic yelling "full speed ahead".
Michael Napolitano
8:23am on Wednesday, July 11, 2012
There is no doubt that that Obamacare will cost the state or Rhode Island more money. We will all be paying for it in the form of yet more taxation. Did you really think it was just going to pay for itself? Can you afford to pay more taxes in Rhode Island? The Democrats in our state are embracing this with open arms. Have you had enough yet? It is time to vote them all out in November before there is nothing left in Rhode Island.