| There's nothing to celebrate
on this first-year anniversary...
Anniversaries are usually cause for celebration.
However, we have reached the one-year anniversary of the passage of the new federal healthcare law, and there is little to celebrate. The only thing we can find to celebrate and applaud is the ruling by U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, who declared the Obama healthcare overhaul unconstitutional.
In truth, we can't afford to celebrate anything right now. A year into the program, and Georgia is already feeling the pain of costs associated with healthcare plan -- to the tune of millions of dollars in higher premiums for the state and its employees. And you can bet that more cost increases are on the way.
How can we forget the statement by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the healthcare debates last year -- she said we needed to pass the bill so we could find out what was really in it. Hate to admit she was right on anything, but she was definitely right here. We are learning more and more about the plan everyday, and none of it is good.
| | Georgia
Gov. Nathan Deal provided information last week that indicates a
provision in the new law which will allow young adults to remain on
their parents' plan (up to age 26) will increase the cost to the state
by $17.7 million in fiscal year 2011.
Georgia can't afford this.
Also according to Deal, Georgia is facing increases of more than $2.5
billion over the next decade associated with Medicaid. The expansion of
Medicaid in 2014 to cover Americans with incomes up to 133 percent of
the federal poverty level will add 650,000 new Georgians to the
Medicaid rolls, Deal said. That's a 45 percent increase.
The Governor said he will appoint a study group to look into options
for the state, even after withdrawing legislation last week that would
have created a commission to explore the possibility of creating a
healthcare exchange in Georgia.
Meanwhile, we can only hope that the Healthcare law will be overturned in federal court...
Now that's a reason to celebrate.
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