Issue Position: Obamacare and Medicaid Expansion

Issue Position

Obamacare and Medicaid expansion is taking our nation deeper into the abyss of debt, and threatens to dismantle what I believe is one of the most trusted relationships, that of doctors and their patient. Essential to Obamacare is Medicaid expansion -- a federal government dependency program for the uninsured, which is administered by states. Since 1980, Medicaid spending has increased nationally by over 1500-percent. Here in Alabama, Medicaid takes up 35% of our General Fund. Under Obamacare, Medicaid would grow even larger -- bringing millions more people to a state of dependency on government, and saddling our state and our nation -- the taxpayers -- with the enormous expense. Here in Alabama alone, an estimated 300-thousand more people would be added to the Medicaid role, to a system that by our own admission is absolutely broken and flawed." "Nothing is free. The money the federal government is spending with wild abandon is not federal dollars -- those are your dollars, your hard-earned tax dollars. There is no difference between federal money and your money. Our great nation is 17-point-2 trillion dollars in debt and it increases by 2-billion dollars every single day. That is why I cannot expand Medicaid in Alabama. We will not bring hundreds of thousands into a system that is broken and buckling." "Do we have a problem with accessible health care in this country? Yes, we do. But putting 300-thousand more people into a broken system that will cost taxpayers billions and drive up this nation's debt is not the answer.

Source