This website has repeatedly exposed how S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s opposition to “Obamacare” is glaringly hypocritical. We’ve also meticulously documented how Haley has spent millions of South Carolina tax dollars to expand the state’s already bloated Medicaid rolls … even as she told The Wall Street Journal this week that the Palmetto State “will not expand Medicaid. Ever.”
Really, governor?
While Haley touts her opposition to Medicaid expansion in the national press, fresh data from the state’s Department of Health and Human Services (SCDHHS) reveals the extent to which Haley’s administration is expanding Medicaid dependency in the Palmetto State.
Ready? If you’re a taxpayer, the numbers are downright scary …
According to the agency, Medicaid enrollment in South Carolina will grow by a whopping 16 percent in fiscal year 2014-15 – triple the projected rate of growth in the current fiscal year.
And while Haley’s agency is quick to blame U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration for this “dependency surge,” the reality is South Carolina’s Medicaid population is growing much faster than other states. In fact according to Kaiser Health News, South Carolina’s 16 percent Medicaid growth rate is larger than the 12 percent average increase in states which approved Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.
States which aren’t approving the Obamacare expansion are averaging five percent growth in their Medicaid populations.
In other words “Haleycare” is an even bigger expansion of dependency than “Obamacare.”
According to the Kaiser report, the Palmetto State “is now actively trying to enroll more of those eligible for the program.”
“South Carolina has opened an online enrollment system, added 20 positions to its call center and used government databases of people who qualify for food stamps to identify those eligible for Medicaid,” the website notes.
Wow … so much for all that “limited government” talk.
When Haley took office, an estimated 1.1 million South Carolinians – roughly 25 percent of the state’s population – received Medicaid services. That number is expanding by 130,000 in the current fiscal year and is expected to grow by 162,000 more in the coming fiscal year.
Haley’s Medicaid agency is requesting $467.1 million more in the coming fiscal year to cover the expense.
Previously SCDHHS received a pair of $100 million bailouts in 2011 (here and here) – part of an effort to address an eventual $225 million shortfall. These bailouts prompted lawmakers to demand an audit of SCDHHS – which produced some truly frightening numbers.
According to the audit, SCDHHS saw its total expenditures increase by a whopping 26 percent from fiscal year 2007-08 to 2010-11. Not only did the state’s Medicaid population increase by 18 percent over that time period, but the per capita cost of providing for them also shot up (from $6,496 to $6,915 per month for each Medicaid enrollee).
Haley is taking this already rampant and unsustainable growth and putting it on steroids … all while pretending to oppose Medicaid expansion in South Carolina.
“It’s a great day in South Carolina,” people … to be bankrupted by reckless government growth.
26 comments
If we’re going to spend millions, might as well take the feds’ money and accept the expansion completely.
Of course we should,but Haley fears the wrath of “conservatives” like Fits, who get pissed off thinking about some poor kid getting health care.
Ludicrous?Sure but hey here in SC we live under Republican “principles.”
Why should she fear FITS? No matter how bad she is or how much Will bitches he is going to endorse her.
Wonder when his tell all book is due?
Why do you think that?
Fits aint no Republican!
He says so!
“feds’ money” really, that’s my and your tax dollars not to mention the future tax dollars of my grandchildren. Fed or State it’s still the peoples tax dollars and that includes corporate tax dollars that are paid by the consumer.
her plan is mine and your plus kids and grandchildren tax dollars and we gives to many taxes breaks to company 3yrs should be the most taxes break for any company we dont get a taxes break
“Haleycare”
TBG sees what you did there.
Why so many low income people in SC? Why, it almost sounds as if SC employers are few and far between and, by and large, pay crappy wages.
Well, as long as we keep those nasty unions out it’s all good.
Has Tony Keck quit – I have heard a word from him in months. That could be one of the best things that could happen to SC – he didn’t really live here anyway – only was here during week – lived with family in Louisiana. And he always looked like he had been on a 3 day drunk – unshaven, messy.
Do SC taxpayers pay a housing allowance/supplement?
And, his travel expenses home?
He makes $ 154,879.00.
Hopefully she will seek help. Really feel sorry for her kids. I once had a friend whose mother was mentally unstable. Sad really.
The reason for the surge in Medicaid enrollments is simpler than Fits idiotic conspiracy theories. The truth is these people were always eligible and simply didn’t know it. Now as people go to enroll in the ACA they are finding out that lo and behold they are already eligible for Medicaid through the state. Guess which idiotic assholes get to pick up the tab for those who the state failed to cover with the Medicaid expansion as part of Obamacare? The idiotic taxpayers of this shithole state that keep electing republicans.
So to review, South Carolina’s Medicaid rolls will expand greatly simply because low information residents will discover they are already eligible for Medicaid thanks to Obamacare. Those left without Medicade will be forced to emergency rooms where the state of South Carolina will be forced to pick a good part of the tab or the hospitals will go broke.
It’s a lose, lose lose situation all because partisan assholes play politics with peoples healthcare. The only good thing is the fucking idiot voters deserve every fucking bit of it.
Pay through the nose idiots!! LoL!!
Hahaha, whatever… in actuality, I believe that the states that didn’t take the Medicaid expansion dollars will begin to shed the “takers” from their boundaries.. Sure, the Chamber crowd, the Demorats, and the hopital folks within this state – and in other such states – will hate this; however, for the rest, it should be an improvement.
Dear Johnq,
The reason there are so many Republican assholes in office in SC is because, before them, we had worse idiot Democrat assholes.
johnq, we missed you on the Democrat SC Senator tax problem thread.
Question is WHY are Medicaid rolls expanding? Did eligibility requirements change or is this an expansion? Population increase? Increase in unemployment? Decrease in wages and benefits?
Let’s see.. yes, yes and yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.
Well.. if YOU had a choice between Obamacare and Medicaid, which would you take? I sure as hell wouldn’t take Obamacare! One might as well just open one’s veins after age 60.
I am happy to see Medicaid expand in this state. The poor really do need help and this is a great way to do so. It’s the Christian thing to do. We cannot help just the rich.
Sure we can.
You ever heard of Howie Rich?
He needs a damn tax cut!
NOW!
In SC we call it “Keeping the nigga down.: Works every time!
That’s right, Trikki. Refuse the funds with the 3 year no match and ongoing match of 10% after that and expand the program that requires a big match.
Once again, we understand why the accounting major never became a CPA.
Well, she could have become one if they administered the exam orally
G.O.P.: Healthcare.gov Too Fast Now
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) — Republican critics of Obamacare rose up in anger today, claiming that after two months of fixes, the healthcare.gov Web site is now “unacceptably fast.”
Leading the howls of protest was the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who accused President Obama of designing a Web site that operates at a “blistering, breakneck speed.”
“With pages loading in milliseconds, this Web site is insuring people before they know what hit them,” Rep. Issa charged. “Clearly, this is what the President and his team had in mind.”
Additionally, Rep. Issa said, at such high speeds “it is questionable whether this Web site is even safe for consumers to use, particularly the elderly.”
The California Republican said he would call for hearings this week to investigate the dangerous new velocity of healthcare.gov, telling reporters, “If anyone can slow this thing down, it’s me.”
Nah. Site’s still twitchy and completely unsafe. Cute comment, though..
The problem is two fold. The Federal Government stuck their nose into healthcare incrementally despite what party was in power. Their must have been a plan for a national healthcare plan to have been implemented in 50 short years crossing three generations of congressional representatives encompassing both political parties. The goal is control of our healthcare by and revenue for the federal government. The question begging to be answered, who planned and orchestrated the federal governments takeover of our healthcare system.
Medicaid today is a product of careful and deliberate language placed in bills as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, and finally, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act . The rise of enrollment in Medicaid and Medicare is federally mandated, Fits. Expected everyone to be enrolled even if they have healthcare from their job or are self pay. Soon doctors will have no choice but to accept Medicaid and Medicare, the final nail in the coffin of our once privatized,efficiently profitable, and the most envied healthcare system in the world.