With the announcement of his decision to not expand the state's Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act, Gov. Sean Parnell posted a copy of the state-paid study of expansion by the Lewin Group of Falls Church, Va.
The $80,000 study, provided to the state in April, had been the subject of numerous public records requests, all refused by the administration, which asserted the 60-page report was part of its decision-making process and therefore secret until its decision was made.
While the study's numbers differ slightly from other reports, it concluded that the failure to expand Medicaid would leave at least 20,000 poor Alaskans without medical coverage. Expanding Medicaid would cost the state between $198 million and $306 million from 2014 to 2020, while additional federal funding would total between $2.1 billion and $3.7 billion over that timeframe, the report said.
Anchorage Daily News / adn.com