Because Obamacare will impose a catastrophically expensive expansion of Medicaid dependency on states, governors and state legislators should invest significant effort in crafting and lobbying for waivers similar to Rhode Island’s.
The new administration of Jerry Brown faces many challenges, including a tough one that will get worse on July 1, 2011. That's when the federal funds that have propped up California's troubled Medi-Cal system will disappear.
Last month Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli successfully argued that the so-called “individual mandate” in Obamacare was outside congressional competence. Advocates of individual choice in health care cheered a significant victory, but this is not the final judicial word on Obamacare.
Easy access to Medi-Cal-financed long-term care (LTC) has caused many Californians to put off long-term care planning and rely on publicassistance. The taxpayer price tag for Medi-Cal Long-Term Care was $12.5 billion in 2008 andwill likely increase with the growing population of age-80-plus citizens in the state.
