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Key Findings

1. Voters in last November’s election clearly showed they want a different direction for the country, including a repeal of the ACA and a replacement based on meaningful health care reform.
2. Governor Inslee and Insurance Commissioner Kreidler say that the cost to Washington state taxpayers of ACA repeal would be $3 billion in 2018 and $3.2 billion in 2019.
3. SB 5163 would exclude funding for the Medicaid expansion from the Washington state four-year budget outlook process until Congress has passed health care reform legislation.
4. Without a formal vote, the legislature expanded Medicaid by simply placing the expansion in the 2013-2015 state budget.
5. Rather than defer budgeting, elected officials should start planning now for the eventual withdrawal of federal funds.
6. SB 5163 irresponsibly “kicks the can down the road” by violating the state’s four-year balanced budget law. Under the bill, the full cost of Medicaid expansion would remain, but it would not be accounted for in the budget outlook.
    

Introduction

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, became law in 2010. Taxes to pay for the law were imposed starting that year, although benefits did not start until 2014. After taking out approximately five percent for administrative costs, the majority of money in the ACA goes toward taxpayer subsidies in the federal and state health insurance exchanges and to pay for the expansion of the Medicaid entitlement program.