Still Not True, No Matter How Many Times He Says It
Speaking on Fox News last night, Lt. Governor Peter Kinder again made false statements about the impact of the new federal health care reform law on the state budget. "This bill that is going to wreck Missouri's budget at $500 million a year," Kinder said.
This is false. Kinder has been corrected and challenged on his falsehoods for months (e.g., here, here, here, here, here and here). Until 2016, the Medicaid changes in the law won't cost the state any money, and then will slowly increase. But even in 2023, the new requirements are only expected to cost $258.4 million per year. This isn't chump change, but it's just a fraction of what Kinder continues to tell the public.
Incredibly, Kinder and his staff have even broadcast links via Twitter to a News-Leader article that exposes his lies. From that story:
Kinder Continues To Cite Wrong Numbers
In August, as the federal health insurance legislation was taking place, DSS released an estimate that said the current version of the House bill at the time would drive up Medicaid costs by $454 million a year.
Since then, Congress has picked up the majority of the tab up front, lowering the Medicaid expansion cost to Missouri and other states significantly.
But Republican lawmakers and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder continue to cite the nearly $500 million figure. Or they will cite the total annual cost — including the federal matching funds — to contrast the impact on the state's general revenue budget.
Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, did so on Tuesday during a news conference to announce that he intends to join a lawsuit of 13 state attorneys general challenging the constitutionality of the new health care law.
"The true cost to Missouri's taxpayers remains unknown and unknowable since we've been dealing with a moving target all this time," Kinder told reporters. "But no one has really disputed my earlier statement it would be easily a half a billion dollars."
There have been multiple news reports disputing the half-a-billion-dollars figure, including this one.
Case closed.
Kinder knows he's wrong. But he sticks with the lie.
