Health Care vs. Higher Ed

Iris Palmer was cited by Inside Higher Ed on how the reduction of federal funding for Medicaid expansion puts pressure on public funding for higher education:

In theory, states could raise taxes to generate enough revenue to cover the cost of Medicaid expansion while also keeping funding for higher education stable. Eight governors proposed new or increased provider taxes to help pay for Medicaid spending growth, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. But it’s not that simple, according to Iris Palmer, a senior policy analyst at the liberal-leaning think tank New America.

“People can say you can increase taxes, but there are definitely states where increasing taxes is not a political option,” she said. “In places where they have very high tax rates like Illinois or Connecticut or California, they don’t have a lot of room to increase taxes to cover their additional spending, I would argue.”