Even The Bribe Is Bogus: Alaska And Other States Get Screwed Under Graham-Cassidy

The latest version of Graham-Cassidy seeks to win over holdouts with what is essentially the bribe of more coverage.

Or does it.

“Graham-Cassidy 2.0: The bullsh*t piles up so fast you need wings to stay above it,” Charles Gaba wrote on his blog ACA Sign Ups, above his analysis of the new talking point that federal funding for states with senators that Republicans are trying to bride into supporting the bill would be higher under the latest version of the Graham-Cassidy kill Obamacare bill.

That’s not accurate, according to Gaba’s analysis. In fact, he finds that by 2026, based on Avalere Health’s estimates, the losses would be “devastating for the other five ‘bribe target’ states: Arizona would now lose $3.3 billion, while Alaska would still be $99 million in the hole, Kentucky would be down $2.7 billion, Ohio down $6.5 billion and West Virginia would lose nearly $1.5 billion.”

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“Meanwhile, California would be hit for a jaw-dropping $72.6 billion and New York would lose $43.5 billion. My own state of Michigan, FWIW, would lose $8.5 billion by 2026. And all of this would be before the block grants are ripped away entirely,” Gaba concluded.

Before he got to this, he found a “double-counting” error that helps explain how this talking point took hold, “… they’re trying to count the 10% of Medicaid expansion funding which the states would otherwise be contributing towards covering those Medicaid enrollees as an increase in federal funding.”

PoliticusUSA’s Jason Easley pointed out the hypocritical outrage of Republicans trying to get Murkowski to vote to kill Obamacare by offering her state what is basically more Obamacare, although technically not under the ACA.

But now it turns out that Republicans only want it to appear like this is happening. In reality, even the bribe is bogus.

Sarah Jones

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