Texas Considers Seceding... from Medicaid

As part of the unconstitutional ObamaCare boondoggle, Medicaid is being forcefully expanded leaving the states to hold the bag as far as paying for it. That additional cost wasn't factored into the economics of the bill (along with the doctor fix, double counting, 6 years of benefits for 10 years of taxes, and other gimmicks) letting Democrats lie through their teeth that it will actually reduce the deficit. Michigan is already in perpetual deficit every year and this will make things worse. But Texas has come out with a novel idea that will negate the ill effect of that part of ObamaCare - drop out of the program entirely. From the New York Times via memeorandum: Texas Considers Medicaid Withdrawal

Some Republican lawmakers — still reveling in Tuesday’s statewide election sweep — are proposing an unprecedented solution to the state’s estimated $25 billion budget shortfall: dropping out of the federal Medicaid program.

And what's a NYT piece without painting conservatives as not just to the right of the political divide, but FAR right (never does the term 'far-left' appear in the liberal rag mag):

Far-right conservatives are offering that possibility in impassioned news conferences. Moderate Republicans are studying it behind closed doors. And the party’s advisers on health care policy say it is being discussed more seriously than ever, though they admit it may be as much a huge in-your-face to Washington as anything else.

Hey - Washington deserves it!

“With Obamacare mandates coming down, we have a situation where we cannot reduce benefits or change eligibility” to cut costs, said State Representative Warren Chisum, Republican of Pampa, the veteran conservative lawmaker who recently entered the race for speaker of the House. “This system is bankrupting our state,” he said. “We need to get out of it. And with the budget shortfall we’re anticipating, we may have to act this year.”

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization, estimates Texas could save $60 billion from 2013 to 2019 by opting out of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, dropping coverage for acute care but continuing to finance long-term care services. ...

...“I want to know whether our current Medicaid enrollees, and there certainly could be millions more by 2014, could be served more cost efficiently and see better outcomes in a state run program” ...

Don't mess with Texas! Anyone in the Michigan legislature want to get either the House or Senate fiscal agency to see what such a move could save for Michigan if we ran our own system?