ObozoCare's Cost-Shift

It's not just a question of the Constitution and mandates, nor of death panels.

It's going to BK the States.

Much of the debate over the federal health law has been focused on the future, including its role in the 2012 presidential elections and in 2014, when many of its provisions take effect. But Smith focused attention on the immediate impact of the law.

Smith [Wisconsin HHS Secretary] said the law requires Wisconsin, which faces a shortfall of up to $3.3 billion in the 2011-'13 budget, to keep spending on Medicaid programs even as their costs rise. That has been a national issue for many states, including Arizona, where Gov. Jan Brewer asked the Obama administration this week for an exemption from the health law mandate so the state could drop some participants from the Medicaid rolls.

IOW, this is an 'unfunded mandate,' or cost-shift. Easy to figure out why: the costs don't show up in the ObozoCare numbers--a lie by omission about the total cost of the law.

So what does that mean to Wisconsin?

The state's health care programs for the poor face a shortfall of $214 million this year and a whopping $1.8 billion more over the next two years

That should pretty much wipe out State employee salaries, no?

By the way, there's a Doylet flushing here, too: he changed the eligibility requirements and added a lot of new Medicaid patients.