Rick Scott the Latest Republican to Oppose Cutting Medicare Costs

    The GOP claims to be concerned about rising Medicare cuts yet they stand in the way of doing anything that might bring them down. To be sure the real driver of costs isn't Medicare per se, but rising medical costs.

    The President actually achieved significant cuts to the cost curve in ObamaCare. The GOP instead demagouged them as Medicare cuts rather than what they were-the elimination of overpayments to physicians. The GOP is also constantly calling for entitlement cuts and then demurring to name them.

    Now in many states Republican Governors have been resisting a Medicaid expansion-the SJC while ruling ObamaCare constitutional, enables states to reject the expansion-that would further control costs.

   Florida Governor Rick Scott was so determined to reject the savings that he falsely stated the real cost of a Medicaid expansion to the state:

    "Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott has rejected the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. And now he’s in hot water for apparently inflating the cost of the expansion to Floridians in order to justify his decision."

    "The website Health News Florida reported Tuesday that Scott was warned in letters by the state legislature’s top economist and budget analyst that his administration’s figure — that the expansion would cost the state $26 billion over 10 years — was false."

     "Scott’s aide reportedly said, in emails obtained by HNF, that the figure was based on the assumption that the federal government — which is tasked with paying for the vast majority of each state’s Medicaid expansion for the first decade — would not fulfill its promise."

      "But after the report was published and caused a stir, including scathing criticism from Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), Scott said through a spokeswoman that his Agency for Health Care Administration would consider alternate cost estimates."

       http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/01/rick-scott-medicaid-cost-controversy.php?ref=fpb

       To reject the Medicaid expansion actually increases costs-and lowers services-to the state.

        "One of the quandaries right now for GOP governors is whether to accept the Medicaid expansion in their states that the Affordable Care Act provides. It’s basically free money from the federal government, but it’s politically toxic for conservatives."

         "Yesterday, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez became just the second GOP governor to accept the Medicaid expansion. Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Rick Scott stands accused of exaggerating the costs of the expansion to his state as a way of justifying rejecting the money. On the defensive, his administration has agreed to recalculate the cost estimates."

         http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/01/squirmin.php?ref=fpblg