Oh Nos! Medicaid Expanded to Cover 14 Mill Uninsured.

Today's Heritage Foundation newsletter, The Morning Bell (You should subscribe! It's a hoot!) reports that, "Obamacare Is Not Reform. It's Just Medicaid on Steroids."

Among the arguments the HF poses to the health care reform plan to insure via Medicaid $14 million currently uninsured Americans:

*"shoving" Americans into the program hides costs because Medicaid is partially paid by states (I wonder how much states currently pay for emergency medical care of the uninsured at hospitals?)

*participating doctors and hospitals receive 20 to 25% less pay from Medicaid than from other insured patients (duh. it's a cost containment issue. Medicaid expands competition for other medical industry soakers.)

*Medicaid recipients will exacerbate the existing access issue patients already have with willing doctors (uh huh, those doctors who wish to make that 20 to 25% more)

Their claim that the health care reform bill (termed Obamacare by opponents) is solely comprised of this initiative to expand Medicaid is silly. But even if they were right, those 14 million newly eligible Americans might not have a problem with it.

Maybe The Heritage Foundation is speaking for Big Pharma, Insurance Cons and other medical industry sponges??