Many liberals who share no fondness for Gov. Rick Snyder have acknowledged that Michigan’s Obamacare Medicaid expansion might be the smartest move Snyder has made.
But on the Republican side, all those critics of Obamacare, especially the tea party types, who said the new Medicaid would be a “big government” calamity, have yet to step up and admit they were wrong. Very, very wrong.
In her column this week, Demas notes that the Medicaid program and Obamacare overall have cut the state’s uninsured rate in half, from 14 percent to 7 percent. Some 600,000 signed up for the Healthy Michigan coverage and hundreds of thousands of people have received medical care, particularly preventive care, that previously was unattainable.
“The 600,000 figure is pretty impressive. But it’s even more so when you consider that Gov. Rick Snyder initially predicted that 470,000 Michiganders would gain coverage by 2021.
“… And Snyder deserves credit. He fought for months with members of his own party. With the ascent of the tea party in Republican politics, any kind of a government expansion was going to meet resistance.
“But because the Medicaid expansion is a key part of Obamacare, which Republicans nearly regard as the work of the anti-Christ, many lawmakers went ballistic, Sen. Joe Hune, R-Hamburg, memorably railed against it as “nauseating” and “garbage.”)
costs the state very little – and actually saves money in the long run – while making people healthier and free of devastating medical bills is a big success.
Sounds like those tea party predictions were “garbage.”
This statement by former Congressman Davy Crockett would surely stick in Susan Demis' craw —-
"We have the right as individuals to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money." – Davy Crockett