Health Reform Costs for the States

 This is from the Heartland Institute:

The Congressional Research Service has released a new study that has several frightening conclusions regarding the costs of Obama’s health reforms for the states. CRS doesn’t provide a cost estimate — they’re very careful not to — but they do note that other states have reached their own conclusions regarding the costs of implementation. Here are a few of those estimates:

• North Dakota estimated the new health care law’s additional costs to its state at $1.1 billion.
• Texas estimated $27 billion
• Indiana estimated $3.6 billion
• Virginia estimated $1.5 billion
• Louisiana estimated $7.1 billion
• Nebraska estimated $766 million
• Oklahoma estimated $441 million

So we’re looking at a cost to taxpayers and states of at minimum $180 billion, and extrapolating across other states, perhaps more than $300 billion. Even if these estimates are only roughly accurate, this is far more than the $114 billion deficit savings President Obama is citing as “the single most important thing we could do in terms of reducing our deficit.” What’s more, these savings exist thanks only to the Congressional Budget Office’s rules regarding how they calculate such things (including assumptions regarding the “Doc Fix” and other matters).

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