As states sort out the many implications of the federal health care overhaul, one of the biggest questions is how much the law actually is going to cost. For now, that’s impossible to answer with any precision. The law expands Medicaid, the state-run health insurance program for the poor, but it’s anybody’s guess as to how many new patients will sign up.

Up to now, the most-often cited estimate came from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Across the country, the CBO expects 16 million new Medicaid and children’s health insurance enrollees, a number it estimates would cost the states a total of $20 billion to cover between 2014 and 2019. (read more at stateline.org)