Nonpartisan Study Concludes Medicaid Expansion Hasn’t Helped Hospitals

“Promised hospital jobs never materialized after Medicaid expansion”

“Non-expansion states have seen faster hospital job growth”

Raleigh, N.C. — A study released last month by the nonpartisan, non-profit Foundation for Government Accountability concluded that “Medicaid expansion has not materially improved hospitals’ financial health.”

The report focused on five key findings:

• “Medicaid expansion has not materially improved hospitals’ financial health;”
• “Promised hospital jobs never materialized after Medicaid expansion;”
• “Non-expansion states have seen faster hospital job growth;”
• “Hospitals are still closing in expansion states;”
• “Medicaid expansion shifts able-bodied adults out of private insurance and into lower-paying Medicaid.”

The report shows that “Medicaid expansion does not meaningfully improve hospitals’ bottom lines.” It also notes that “while job creation claims may be a useful advocacy tool…the data once again provide a different reality.” In Arkansas and Kentucky, for example, hospitals actually lost jobs after expanding Medicaid.

Additionally, over a period of five years, “non-expansion states are growing hospital jobs roughly 14 percent faster than expansion states.”

“Democrats are cheering hospital layoffs because they hope to score political points, which is sad,” Sen. Bob Steinburg (R-Chowan) said. “Shifting private insurance patients onto Medicaid would result in a lower reimbursement rate over time, which only puts hospitals on weaker financial footing. If Gov. Cooper would drop his Medicaid expansion ultimatum, we could work toward helping hospitals instead of playing politics with the livelihood of the men and women in eastern North Carolina.”