It’s unclear why Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett (R) has chosen to drop his opposition to expanding Medicaid under Obamacare, but we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
From Lancaster Online
Gov. Tom Corbett intends to announce he will accept federal funds to expand medical coverage to an estimated 682,000 more Pennsylvanians in a Medicaid-like program, according to sources close to the governor. [...]
The governor’s announcement, expected early next week, will come almost two weeks before the Oct. 1 federal deadline for states to submit a plan for the expansion.
State Republicans have argued that expanding Medicaid would be too costly and unsustainable for the state, but the good news for them is that the federal government will cover 100 perfect of the cost of expansion until 2016, 95 percent of the cost until 2020, and 90 percent of the cost beyond 2020. Ultimately, the cost of expanding Medicaid will be less than the cost of visits to the emergency room.
(H/T TPM)