An OK Policy issue brief looks at the expected impact of the new federal health care law, the Affordable Care Act, on the state budget. Its main findings:

• Most studies of the impact of the Affordable Care Act have concluded that increases to state Medicaid budgets will be modest.
• Some studies have concluded that overall state spending will decrease as a result of the new law.
• Experts at the Urban Institute and the Oklahoma Health Care Authority project that Oklahoma Medicaid costs will increase between $212 and $789 million in the coming years.
• Estimates by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and Cato Institute that the Affordable Care Act will impose additional state costs of $11 billion by 2023 are way out of line with other estimates and are based on mistaken assumptions and methodologies.

Click here for the full 8-page issue brief and here for the 1-page summary.

See our blog post on this issue.