Obamacare's Medicaid expansion in Mich. ‘one heck of a success story’

Many liberals who share no fondness for Gov. Rick Snyder have acknowledged that Michigan's Obamacare Medicaid expansion might be the smartest move Snyder has made.
But on the Republican side all those critics of Obamacare, especially the tea party types, who said the new Medicaid would be a “big government” calamity, have yet to step up and admit they were wrong. Very, very wrong.

Susan Demas, a columnist for MLive, points to the impressive numbers associated with Medicaid access for the working poor and concludes that this program, known as Healthy Michigan, is “one heck of a success story.”

In her column this week Demas notes that the Medicaid program and Obamacare overall have cut the state’s uninsured rate in half, from 14 percent to 7 percent. Some 600,000 signed up for the Healthy Michigan coverage and hundreds of thousands of people have received medical care, particularly preventive care, that previously was unattainable.

Here’s how Demas sees it:

“The 600,000 figure is pretty impressive. But it's even more so when you consider that Gov. Rick Snyder initially predicted that 470,000 Michiganders would gain coverage by 2021.

“Yes, Michigan beat that goal six years early.

“… And Snyder deserves credit. He fought for months with members of his own party. With the ascent of the tea party in Republican politics, any kind of a government expansion was going to meet resistance.

“But because the Medicaid expansion is a key part of Obamacare, which Republicans regard as the work of the anti-Christ, many lawmakers went ballistic (Sen. Joe Hune, R-Hamburg, memorably railed against it as "nauseating" and "garbage.")

It’s important to point out that, under the Michigan rules for Medicaid expansion, the coverage is not free. Each recipient chips in, based on their ability to pay. So, a federally funded program that costs the state very little – and actually saves money in the long run – while making people healthier and free of devastating medical bills is a big success.

Sounds like those tea party predictions were "garbage.”