Quote:
But Mississippi and eight other contiguous Southern states, all led by Republican governors, have decided not to implement the Medicaid expansion, even though the federal government has pledged to pay all medical costs for the newly eligible enrollees in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and no less than 90 percent of their costs thereafter.
All of them – Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma – say they can't afford it under those terms.
The wall of Southern opposition is one of the last major obstacles to President Barack Obama's goal of universal health coverage for all Americans. If it remains intact, nearly 5 million of the newly eligible won't have Medicaid coverage in 2022, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care research group.
Besides shared borders and conservative political leadership, most of the nine states have something else in common: By a host of measures – from obesity to infant mortality – all but North Carolina and Georgia are among the unhealthiest in the nation, according to the 2012 edition of America's Health Rankings.
So tell me why they can't afford to have the FEDS pay the doctor bills for the very poor? Makes no sense to me at all.