Most beneficiaries of the joint state-federal program are not aware their health insurance comes from a program being vilified on Capitol Hill as riddled with waste, fraud and abuse.
Americans dramatically over-pay for healthcare and still leave a lot of the population uncovered. If we took the amount to cover Traditional Medicare for everyone and implemented it and made Medicare as cost-efficient as Traditional Medicaid we would save about 40% of every healthcare dollar. Medicare Advantage plans are a boondoggle and you can bet the Medicaid 'Advantage' plans are also. The root cause is for-profit healthcare. Why are we the only industrial democracy with it and even a concept of medical bankruptcy (not to mention kids going to bed hungry). It is long past time to end the oligarchy and oust their captive rethuglican politicians.
With thanks to the links to a Georgetown University article by Andy Schneider (shared by Andrew Sprung in comments), the stark reality is spelled out: State and federal agencies can and should reduce the amount of waste and abuse in Medicaid. MACPAC and GAO have each laid out recommendations for how to do so. Shifting hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars in Medicaid costs from the federal government to the states is not among those recommendations. There’s a simple reason for that: shifting federal costs to the states has nothing to do with reducing waste and abuse. It has everything to do with knee-capping the nation’s largest health insurer for children and families.
Americans dramatically over-pay for healthcare and still leave a lot of the population uncovered. If we took the amount to cover Traditional Medicare for everyone and implemented it and made Medicare as cost-efficient as Traditional Medicaid we would save about 40% of every healthcare dollar. Medicare Advantage plans are a boondoggle and you can bet the Medicaid 'Advantage' plans are also. The root cause is for-profit healthcare. Why are we the only industrial democracy with it and even a concept of medical bankruptcy (not to mention kids going to bed hungry). It is long past time to end the oligarchy and oust their captive rethuglican politicians.
Re Blase's bullshit allegations about waste, see these two debunks from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP):
https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2025/01/10/the-truth-about-fraud-against-medicaid/
https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2025/01/27/the-truth-about-waste-and-abuse-in-medicaid/
Thanks for posting.
Excellent share! Thank you.
With thanks to the links to a Georgetown University article by Andy Schneider (shared by Andrew Sprung in comments), the stark reality is spelled out: State and federal agencies can and should reduce the amount of waste and abuse in Medicaid. MACPAC and GAO have each laid out recommendations for how to do so. Shifting hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars in Medicaid costs from the federal government to the states is not among those recommendations. There’s a simple reason for that: shifting federal costs to the states has nothing to do with reducing waste and abuse. It has everything to do with knee-capping the nation’s largest health insurer for children and families.