Study Reveals Big Costs in Medicaid Expansion

Mississippi would get slammed after federal subsidies are pared back

Expanding Medicaid would bring Mississippi more federal money from 2014 through 2016 but could cost the state millions of dollars from 2017 through 2025, according to a study released Monday by the state's University Research Center.

The study examines the economic impact of adding hundreds of thousands of people to the federal-state health insurance program for the needy, aged, blind and disabled — an option under the federal health care law that President Barack Obama signed in 2010.

Republican Gov. Phil Bryant has said repeatedly that he opposes expanding Medicaid because he believes it would be too expensive and he doesn't want to increase people's dependence on government.