Last month, various Republican congressmen from Illinois insisted that the Medicaid expansion included in the Democrats' health care reform package would cost the state government $2 billion between 2014 and 2019.  We repeatedly noted in response that this was based on an outdated version of the bill and that the costs to the state would be much more manageable.  Today, the Tribune's Judith Graham echoes that point in a great piece on the bill's impact here at home, writing that the "health care overhaul isn't going to break the bank in Illinois any time soon, according to state officials and health care experts who have been scrambling to analyze the new federal law."  More from her analysis:

The federal government will pick up 100 percent of the cost of the Medicaid expansion from 2014 through 2016. After that the state will start paying a small share and by 2020 will assume 10 percent of the cost — about $200 million a year, Eagleson said.

The state now spends about $5 billion annually on Medicaid's 2.3 million members, excluding federal stimulus payments.