H.3443 would expand Medicaid to cover adults sixty-five years of age and younger who are at or below 138% of the federal poverty level. This expansion is one that legislators have attempted to pass in different forms on numerous occasions.
Government healthcare in general is both bad policy and impractical, but Medicaid expansion is particularly so. The incentive to expand Medicaid is the promised federal funding to cover the initial expansion. However, that funding would phase out in 2022, leaving states to shoulder the newly-increased financial burden themselves. South Carolina is already facing a huge pension deficit and, at least according to lawmakers, the roads and educational systems are underfunded as well. Medicaid expansion would be one more financial drain that South Carolina cannot afford.