California Can't Afford ObamaCare's Medi-Cal Expansion

An awesome piece, from George Skelton, at the Los Angeles Times, "'Affordable' Care Act? Not so much for Sacramento":

In Washington, it's called the Affordable Care Act. In Sacramento, it could be become known as another budget buster.

Obamacare — as it's pugnaciously tagged by the political right — may not be affordable at all for California state government.

Soon after the federal healthcare act was passed by Congress in 2010, the Schwarzenegger administration in Sacramento calculated a state price tag of up to $2.65 billion annually.

The Brown administration has torn up that price tag, but doesn't have a new one. They're working on it, "trying to be much more precise," says Len Finocchio, associate director of the Department of Health Care Services.

Good luck on that. As Sacramento consistently demonstrates, being precise on government spending projections is virtually impossible.

But Finocchio acknowledges that the federal act will result in a heavier state financial load. "We almost certainly will be adding Medi-Cal enrollees, and that will be a cost," he notes.

The additional burden on the states is a negative aspect of the healthcare overhaul that seldom gets discussed, especially in Obama-rooting, liberal-dominated Sacramento.

That's California for you, also known as Cuba on the Pacific.

Read the whole thing. Skelton offers a dose of fiscal sobriety that's badly missing these days.