Political Quotes

“the harsh realities of the health care reform law are coming home to roost. My State is bracing for the impact of the so-called affordable care act. Under the health care reform law, enrollment under an expanded Medicaid Program is projected to increase in my State of Mississippi by as much as 44 percent in 2014. Thousands of people will be forced onto the Medicaid rolls. The legislature in my state is wrestling with serious budget pressures from the cost of the Medicaid Program. Mississippi has the highest Federal matching assistance percentage in the country at approximately 75 percent. But over the course of the next 10 years, our State match requirement will increase by $127 million each year for a total of $1.3 billion by the year 2020. Our State's budget can't handle that burden. Other States are facing similar constraints. The affordable care act is essentially taking aim at State governments. The maintenance-of-effort requirements for the Medicaid Program are particularly restrictive. They inhibit a State's ability to spend taxpayer money wisely, and they ignore the inherent problems within the Medicaid Program. Mississippi faces the prospect of expending all of its resources keeping up with an unfunded mandate that increases its dependency on the Federal Government, while being forced to cut other important services, such as education. In addition, physician services cannot keep up with the demands of an expanded Medicaid population.…”