For the two dozen states that opted out of the expanded health care under the Affordable Care Act, financial troubles for alternative medical care providers have emerged. According to Forbes, reports from Fitch Ratings indicated that gaps are widening between states that adopted the law’s Medicaid expansion and Republican-led states that refused to go along.
The health law has set up a system where the federal government pays for the full cost of Medicaid for the first three years. The state will pick up some costs by 2017, but by 2020, the federal government is set to cover at least 90 percent of the Medicaid costs. The deal seems far from unfair–the federal government usually pays for roughly half the tab. Yet, two dozen GOP-led states still refused to adopt the measures, which only ended up hurting them financially.
Fitch Ratings, a financial ratings agency said in their July 16 reports that they have downgraded 10 health care entities, five of which were in states that did not adopt the Medicaid expansion due to “funding and reimbursement pressures, which may have been lessened by Medicaid expansion,” according to Forbes. Yet, eight out of nine of the upgrades were for hospitals in states that have expanded Medicaid. The stats do their own talking.
Fitch is insistent upon the negative implications for red states and positive for those that have expanded care, stating, “We expect providers in states that have chosen not to participate in expanded Medicaid eligibility to face increasing financial challenges in 2014 and beyond. Nonprofit hospitals and healthcare systems in states that have expanded their Medicaid coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act have begun to realize the benefit from increased insurance coverage.”
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