Money Minute: High court should uphold Medicaid expansion [Video]

The U.S. Supreme Court is tackling the question of whether an expansion of Medicaid under the healthcare law violates states’ rights. More specifically, does it violate Republican-led states’ rights?

That’s the crux of the case, seeing as 26 Republican-led states are the main ones challenging the law. But when it comes to Medicaid, you have to wonder what their beef really is.

The United States has about 50 million people without health insurance -- a shameful and costly statistic. The main goal of the reform law is to bring as many people as possible into the insurance fold.

Of the 30 million or so the law would embrace, more than half would find their way to coverage through Medicaid programs. We’re talking about 17 million people, mostly in low-income families.

Left to their own devices, such people would likely continue receiving healthcare through emergency rooms, thus passing along their costs to taxpayers and those with insurance.

Under the reform law, they’d be eligible for Medicaid, which would be paid for at first completely by the federal government. After a few years, Washington’s contribution to the expanded program would still be no less than 90% of total costs.

So what’s not to like? Republican state officials say extending health insurance to low-income people is their thing, not Uncle Sam’s. They say Washington has no business dictating how they should run their Medicaid programs.

This is, of course, silly. State officials should be grateful for any move that relieves local taxpayers of the financial burden of paying for the uninsured. They should be glad to make healthcare more accessible to local people.

They should accept this gift from the rest of the nation and say “thank you.”