Medicaid expansion could save state $47.8 million yearly, mostly in mental-health services

From Marietta Times: (click for full article)

Oklahoma could save about $47.8 million a year - mostly in the cost of serving poor mental-health patients - if it accepts an expansion of the Medicaid program under the federal Affordable Care Act, a state agency estimates.

Services currently funded completely with state money would shift to Medicaid funding - allowing the state to either shift its tax money to other uses or magnify its ability to provide those services.

"I think it's darn sure one of the selling points for accepting" the Medicaid expansion, said Michael Brose, executive director of the Mental Health Association in Tulsa.

Carter Kimble, spokesman for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, said first-draft estimates of potential state savings with the Medicaid expansion show that the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services could save $34 million, the Corrections Department $11.2 million, and the state Health Department $2.4 million.