Throughout the debate on President Obama's relentless push to reform Americas Health Care both the House and the Senate have taken great care to keep the price tag close to the arbitrary $900 Billion cost target proposed by the President. 

While both the House and Senate versions claim to have met the Presidents objective, everyone with the exception of Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson are ignoring the proverbial 800 pound gorilla in the bill.

The Senate Bill according to some analysts with push 15 million more Americans into Medicaid.  The federal government pays 57% of Medicaid costs with the states picking up the other 43 Because Medicaid is administered as 50 individual state programs, researching the costs becomes somewhat problematic.  Let's take a look using New Jersey as an example.

According to State Health Facts.org , New Jersey has 935,500 total Medicaid recipients at a cost of 7.3 billion dollars.  The state's share is 3.65 billion.  The state cost per recipient is $3,904.00. 

New Jersey accounts for 1.6% of all US Medicaid recipients.  If the reported 15 million are added to Medicaid nationwide, New Jersey's 1.6% of that total would be 240,000.  Multiply 240,000 by $3904.00 and ObamaCare adds 937 million dollars to the New Jersey State Budget.  New Jersey will be forced to either raise taxes or make additional budgets cuts.

This scenario is true nationwide with the exception of Nebraska and Louisiana.  Nebraska increases in Medicaid costs will be borne by the rest of the country as part of the deal to secure Ben Nelsons vote to cut off debate in the Senate.  Before committing to vote in favor, Mary Landrieu secured 300 million for Louisiana to help offset the costs.  Health and Human Services put the federal cost of Medicare for 2007 at 191 Billion dollars. 

ObamaCare would mandate an addition of approximately 60 Billion dollars to state budgets across the nation.  State tax increases will not be reported as being part of the true cost of this program.  It's amazing that there has been very little outcry from the states or the media

Don't the American people deserve to know the "true" cost of ObamaCare?


Phil Marshall is a New Jersey Resident and Small Business Owner pmarshall_01@yahoo.com