Expanding Medicaid a Job Creator? (Yeah, just like setting house fires and robbing ABC stores.)

shakeWe’ve got one of the most generous Medicaid programs in the country.  Some health care professional acquaintances of mine tell me that providers in surrounding states are sending medicaid patients there into our state because the benefits are so much better.  North Carolina covers significantly more than what the federal government requires.  And the Democrats and the drive-by media want us to spend even more:

North Carolina would create 43,000 jobs and draw down $21 billion in federal funding over five years if state leaders agreed to expand Medicaid as allowed by the Affordable Care Act, according to a new report conducted by George Washington University researchers and sponsored by the Cone Health Foundation and the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust. 

“At county levels, if Medicaid is not expanded by 2016, Mecklenburg and Wake counties would crate [sic] about 4,500 fewer jobs each by 2020,” says the report, which argues Medicaid expansion could drive down the state’s unemployment rate. […]

Politicians and bureaucrats do not “create jobs,”  They can approve laws and policies that make the environment more or less inviting for investors to spend money and grow businesses. How is expanding Medicaid going to do that? 

legisOf course, you’ll get the mix of federal and state funds to finance the medicaid expansion.  Then, you’ll have to pay for the people to administer said expansion. And where do those government bureaucracies at the state and federal levels get their money to fund their mischief?  That’s right, from YOU and ME. Show of hands: WHO has some spare cash laying around to throw toward Raleigh and DC?  Expanding Medicaid will require taking some more cash out of your pockets. 

Instead of fabricating another method for making more people dependent on the government, why not look for ways to reduce the cost of health care delivery?  

In 2013, the General Assembly nixed the idea of expanding Medicaid — a key component in the implementation of ObamaCare. Recently, Gov. Pat McCrory has been making noises about revisiting the issue.  But incoming House speaker Tim Moore has not shown any interest in expanding Medicaid.  And, apparently, neither is at least one more key legislator:

“We’ve still got work to do…That’s not even on the table,” Rep. Justin Burr, R-Stanly, said Wednesday.

Asked about the argument in the Cone-Reynolds report that expanding Medicaid could spur job creation, Burr said it wasn’t convincing.

“The argument that we’re going to take money from the taxpayers and create jobs, that’s never worked for me,” he said.