Health law costs Wyoming $50 million for Medicaid expansion
by U.S. Senator Mike Enzi
March 8, 2011
Washington, D.C. – Wyoming doesn’t have $50 million to spare, according to U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., who said a study released March 1st by two Congressional committees shows yet another reason why the President’s health care law is unworkable.
The study, Medicaid Expansion in the New Health Law: Costs to the States (http://energycommerce.house.gov/media/file/PDFs/030111MedicaidReport.pdf), predicts the law will cost taxpayers at least $118 billion in the next 11 years. This figure doubles the Congressional Budget Office’s recent estimate of the taxpayer burden befalling states due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Wyoming’s share is an estimated $50 million between 2014 and 2019.
"States, unlike the federal government, can’t print money. Wyoming takes balancing its budget very seriously and this would drop a grenade on the carefully put together plans of Wyoming’s governor and the state legislature. This is yet another unintended consequence of the health care law and another reason Congress needs to pass a health care bill that will actually help bring health care costs down for states and patients," said Enzi.
The study was put together by the Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee and Fred Upton, R-Mich., Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The study provides a comprehensive overview of state government estimates for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (http://www.healthcare.gov/law/introduction/index.html) and the impact on Medicaid programs in the states.
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