Disproportionate Benefit to Blacks

The Affordable Care Act expands Medicaid coverage to all adults below 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Under the law, the federal government will cover 100 percent of the cost for the first three years—from 2014 to 2016. The federal contribution then gradually declines to 90 percent, where it will remain.

However, the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the decision to expand must be left up to the states. While the Obama administration assumed that states would still jump at the federal funding, this turned out not to be the case.

[...]

Currently, 25 states and the District of Columbia have opted into Medicaid expansion, while 19 have opted out. That leaves six that have not yet decided.

  National Journal

I was just watching an NPR segment with Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, pastor at the church in Atlanta where Dr. Martin Luther King was stationed. He was arrested recently along with 38 other people from a group called Moral Mondays for protests to have Medicaid expanded in Georgia. He says Georgia’s government is claiming that Georgia can’t afford to expand Medicaid, when the federal government is underwriting the cost 100% for two years and then 90%. He gave the figures on the number of jobs that would be created and the amount of revenue expected.

It does seem as though the arguments against Medicaid expansion are mostly political – Republicans determined not to accept anything involved with the Obama administration – and perhaps punitive, with the same arguments our righteous citizens have about welfare “handouts” to the undeserving poor (read "blacks").

And the absolute proof of dog-whistle politics in Georgia is that another bill awaiting the governor's signature is one that would make it a crime for state employees to assist anyone in signing up for the Affordable Care Act.  Seriously, Georgia.  WTF?