Did they think it through? About half the states, mostly those with Republican governors and legislatures, rejected the medicaid expansion. They not only rejected a benefit for the low-income folks in their state but it seems they have also hurt many of the hospitals.

Now they might have to bail out these hospitals or watch them close. So the state’s choice is to let them close and hurt the people of the state or bail them out and pay twice. Why do I say pay twice? People in the state pay once to fund the medicaid expansion in other states and a second time to make up for hospital losses resulting from rejecting medicaid expansion in their state.

Here is the beginning of the article Republicans debate mini-bailouts for hospitals

ATLANTA — Republican governors scored easy political points by rejecting President Barack Obama’s plan to enroll more poor people in government health insurance.

Now Republican leaders in Georgia and Mississippi may be bailing out hospitals that will lose funding they would have gotten from Obama’s health care law.

The Wall Street journal also has an article on this and I’ll give the link but these articles are often behind a pay-wall. The article is Hospitals Take Financial Hit in Failed Expansion of Medicaid and I quote from it below:

the failure to expand Medicaid coverage by some states not only adds fewer insured patients, it also eliminates the payments hospitals had long received to cover the cost of uninsured people they treat free.

Rejecting medicaid expansion seemed an easy way to score political points with fellow Republicans but at a cost. Did they think it through?