RED ALERT: Obamacare Will Cost South Carolina $914 Million

New Federal Mandates Bust State Budgets

“New federal health care legislation will cost the state of South Carolina and its taxpayers $914 million.

“That cost – the total of spending from July 1 to 2019 – will come as the state adds 480,000 low-income children and adults to a state health insurance program, as required by the new law, according to estimates by the state Department of Health and Human Services.

“The expansion represents a 4.4 percent increase in the $20.9 billion the state would have spent on Medicaid during that nine-year period, adding roughly $100 million a year to the state’s costs.

“With the state already facing a likely $1 billion budget shortfall next year, Republican lawmakers – who control the General Assembly – said the additional health care costs are one more reason they oppose implementing the law, which President Barack Obama signed Monday.”

(John O’Connor, “S.C. Medicaid Coverage to Expand; Cost to Soar by $914 Million,” The State, 3/25/10)

By Code Red