Adding people to Medicaid is a favorite tactic of some politicians, but many patients already enrolled in Medicaid can't get medical care. Administrators have made major cuts to reimbursement rates, to the point that many physicians lose money on Medicaid patients. In New York, for example, physicians earn just $20 for 60-minute consultations with Medicaid patients. This is just a fraction of what private insurers pay.

Consequently, more than a fifth of doctors nationally won't accept new Medicaid patients, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change.

Adding millions more to Medicaid would exacerbate the program's problems. Sure, more Americans would be "insured." But what good is insurance if you can't find a doctor?