Medicaid expansionaffordable?

Medicaid expansion

affordable?

It is good to see that Dr. Jay Shannon, CEO of Cook County Health and Hospitals System, feels that the benefits of Medicaid expansion outweigh the costs. I suspect that this is due to his statement that before expansion, more than half the patients using county hospitals and clinics had no insurance: now about two-thirds are insured.

He also appreciated that those who were able to sign up for Medicaid during the expansion that the program has offered big quality-of-life improvements. We should all be glad that our citizens are better off - have better health care now.

In reviewing the costs of adding 623,000 newly eligible Illinoisans enrolled by the end of June, and seeing that by 2020 the Medicaid expansion will cost the state $208.6 million and Cook County $72.6 million, can the taxpaying citizens and businesses of Illinois afford this in a time where the state is nearly $4 billion short in having a balanced budget this year? On top of this by 2020 the federal taxpaying citizens and businesses share of the Medicaid expansion will be $3.03 billion. This at a time when the federal deficit is near $18 trillion. The taxpaying citizens and businesses of our state will share in this cost too.

It would be interesting to know if any of the newly Medicaid covered people are not citizens of the United States. If so, how many are there and why are taxpaying citizens and businesses, many of whom are struggling to meet their own costs and obligations, being asked to pay for their medical coverage? Nothing is free and we need to carefully examine expenses.

Lee Joyner

Wheaton