Gov. Chris Christie, head of the Republican Governors Association, supported the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare. He took that free money from the federal government and extended coverage to thousands of his constituents who otherwise would have fallen into the Medicaid gap. So what's his
RGA doing in South Carolina? Why, of course, running an ad attacking state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, a Democrat running for governor who supports Medicaid expansion in the state. Here are the extraordinary claims in the ad:
"Remember this guy, Sheheen? Well first, Sheheen supported much of Obamacare. But then he refused to support the lawsuit to stop it. Now, Vincent Sheheen wants to use Obamacare for a $2 billion expansion of Medicaid in South Carolina.
"Millions of families losing their health plans. Thirty-four thousand South Carolina jobs could be lost."
The RGA is spending about $200,000 to air this ad, trying to convince South Carolinians that it would be a really bad thing for
500,000 people who are now uninsured to get coverage. They have that "34,000 jobs" lost thing entirely wrong as well. At least, that's according to a
study that the South Carolina Hospital Association conducted. It concluded that expansion "would generate approximately $11.2 billion between 2014 and 2020," and "South Carolina’s total annual economic impact of the increase in federal funding due to the Medicaid expansion will be approximately $1.5 billion in labor income, $3.3 billion in state economic activity while generating nearly 44,000 new jobs in the state by 2020." The net gain for the state until 2020, the study says: "a surplus of approximately $9 million."
The RGA is lying. Maybe Christie would want to do something about that.