S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley tells anyone who will listen that South Carolina will “never” expand Medicaid, but as FITS has exclusively reported her administration is currently ballooning the state’s Medicaid rolls.
Medicaid growth in the coming fiscal year in South Carolina is projected at 16 percent – more than three times the current rate (and more than three times the average growth rate of states NOT accepting the Medicaid expansion associated with Obamacare).
Haley’s administration – which has spent tens of millions of dollars expanding eligibility in South Carolina – is asking for another $450-500 million in tax dollars to pay for this explosion.
Well … more now …
According to The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier, Haley is proposing yet another Medicaid expansion – $44.7 million ($31 million of which is federal money) to enroll 1,010 mentally ill South Carolinians into a variety of bureaucratic programs. Haley is also hoping to bypass the state agency that typically deals with these cases – the S.C. Department of Disabilities and Specials Needs (SCDDSN) – because it is controlled by legislators, not her executive cabinet.
She’s also bypassing two other alphabet soup bureaucracies, the S.C. Department of Mental Health (SCDHM) and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC).
Gotta love it right?
Governors and lawmakers battling over a pile of shiny new taxpayer largesse … which, again, is getting stacked on top of the billions of dollars in existing funding received by these agencies each year.
And for what?
South Carolina’s health statistics are abysmal …
Look, we are not unsympathetic to the needs of individuals with mental health issues. But having numerous bureaucracies sit around throwing skyrocketing sums of cash at the problem has not worked.
Nor has “caring” for these individuals via the state’s prisons system …
We thought as a former “Tea Partier” that Haley understood expanding government programs (and broadening the federal government’s reach into South Carolina) was not good policy. This latest Medicaid expansion is further proof she does not.
UPDATE: This website typically calls out mainstream media outlets for their failure to call out Haley’s hypocrisy, but to her credit Post and Courier reporter Lauren Sausser noted that this expansion was “in some ways, an about-face from the 2013 legislative session, during which (SCDHHS director Tony) Keck and Haley were vocal about not spending more federal money on Medicaid.”
“They both adamantly pushed back against heavy political pressure to accept billions of federal dollars to expand Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, arguing that growing the state’s Medicaid roll won’t make the population any healthier,” Sausser reported.
11 comments
Only in a sick fucking backassward state like SC and FITS News is it wrong to help our fellow citizens that can’t help themselves through no fault of their own. Hoping one day you and your family are on the receiving end of the policies you champion. If there is a god you will suffer the fate you wish on others.
Fuck you FITS News you immoral pieces of shit!
Keck and Haley are worried about the state getting sued for civil rights violations. If they don’t do something they will be forced by the feds.
Just how bad does it have to get. How many need to die to satisfy your sick political ideology?
Fuck you!
Republicans don’t care about people, just ideology.
Let’s be fair. Haley has not expanded eligibility to Medicaid under the 138% Federal Poverty Level standard of the Affordable Care Act. The money she refused was for this expansion.
The expansion recently seen in South Carolina is due to previously uninformed residents who were already eligible under the old standards, but had not signed up until everybody started talking about Obamacare. Thus, the recent increase in the Medicaid rolls is not due to eligibility expansion, but to a higher participation rate. The Federal government matches these costs under the current rate, but the state still needs more funds from the state budget to meet the state share of this increase.
The baseline participation rate in calendar year 2009 was 70.1% of the eligible population.
That’s the problem with SC, too many uninformed living here.
And, they invariably vote Republican…like they do across the rest of the country.
So the key is – how do you accept Obamacare Marxist healthcare and expand Medicaid – while at the same time fighting against Obamacare Marxist healthcare and expanded Medicaid? Nikki will find a way. In the end she can run for re-election by saying “Don’t vote for my opponent – you don’t need to – for I have become him.”
You need to 1) buy a dictionary, 2) study history, and 3) buy a clue. You have no understanding of what a Marxist is. It isn’t the ACA, the President, yada yada, dumbass.
Haley will not be re-elected this fall….that’s a fact..
OLUMBIA — A $29 state income tax cut,
10 new state troopers, help with medical waiting lists and a 2 percent
raise for firefighters at the state Forestry Commission are some of the
highlights from Republican Gov. Nikki Haley’s executive budget proposal.
The
first term Republican governor — who is running for reelection in
November — recommended the state spend $238 million more from its
general fund than it did last year, a growth of 3.7 percent. Total, the
governor is recommending the state spend $6.6 billion in the general
fund for the budget year that begins July 1.
The general fund
includes state income and sales taxes, but does not include federal
money and other funds, such as fines and fees. The state’s total budget
is more than $22 billion.
The Department of Mental Health was the
big winner, with Haley recommending a 5.1 percent increase from the
state’s general fund — more than any other agency. If approved by the
legislature, the budget allocation would mark a $50 million increase in
the department’s budget since Haley took office.
Haley also proposed spending $3.6 million to hire 25 more SLED agents, including four people in the child fatality unit,
four alcohol enforcement officers, five narcotics officers, one public
corruption investigator and one insurance fraud investigator. She also
proposed spending an extra $2.1 million to hire 10 more state troopers,
one year after lawmakers approved money to hire 30 new troopers.
For
the second year in a row, the governor proposed a small state income
tax cut by eliminating the 6 percent tax bracket, saving some taxpayers
$29 a year. House Republicans are considering a bill that would go
further by combining the state’s 3 percent, 5 percent and 6 percent
brackets into one 3.5 percent bracket, saving some taxpayers $86 a year.
The
governor also is proposing spending $44.8 million to move about 1,400
disabled people off of waiting lists and into programs for intellectual
disabilities. Enrollment for those programs has increased 8 percent over
the last few years, but the waiting lists for those programs have
increased 198 percent, according to the governor’s office.
The
governor did not recommend a pay raise for the state’s more than 56,000
state employees, but she did propose a 2 percent increase for
firefighters at the state Forestry Commission — workers who were left
out of the public safety pay raise from two years ago.
The
governor’s budget proposal is the first step in the 2014-15 budget
process. Her recommendations now go to House lawmakers, who will pass
their own version of the budget in March. The Senate will pass its
version in May, and the two sides will reconcile their differences in
June before sending the budget back to Haley for her approval.
South Carolina’s constitution requires the state to pass a balanced budget.
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/01/13/3204997/state-house-highlights-from-gov.html#storylink=cpy
And to think, the medicaid expansion under Obamacare would be paid for for 3 years. She’s just screwing the pooch.
Looks like the only thing expanding concerning Haley is her butt…