Watchdog.org Podcast

Code Blue is Watchdog Radio’s weekly look at heath issues, ranging from the latest public health debates to small government views on health-care reform. Medicaid and Medicare are breaking the budgets of states and the federal government, but there are other options out there. Is Obamacare the best we can do? This week, hosts Eric Boehm and Jason Hart take a look at the Medicaid expansion in Ohio, which is running off the rails after less than a year and a half. As Hart reported this week, after just 17 months, Gov. John Kasich’s Obamacare expansion has cost federal taxpayers $3.7 billion. That’s over $1 billion more than the Kasich administration projected for the expansion’s first 18 months. For now, the higher-than-expected costs are being picked up by federal taxpayers, but that will change in a few years and state taxpayers will have to pay as much as $30 million per month to cover the increased costs brought by the expansion. Then, with the Supreme Court getting re