Wall Street Journal Editorial Board: The GOP’s Medicaid Moment of Truth
House Republicans are committed to strengthening and protecting the Medicaid program as a critical lifeline for the most vulnerable Americansit was intended to serve, such as low-income pregnant women, children, people with disabilities, and the elderly.However, Medicaid has expanded well beyond its original purpose into a program fraught with waste, fraud, and abuse.
Not only does Medicaid lack a work requirement for able-bodied adults, but in many cases the federal government pays states more to cover working-age, single men than it doesfor vulnerable pregnant women or people with disabilities.
In a recent piece, The Editorial Board at The Wall Street Journal sheds light on the discrepancies between the federal match rates that are offered to various states and eligible beneficiaries within the Medicaid program. To get our fiscal house in order, we must reform the nation’s welfare system while protecting federal assistance programs for those truly in need.
WORD ON THE STREET
Excerpts from the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board:
“The GOP hasn’t yet rolled out a draft Medicaid bill, but Democrats and their media allies are already pounding Republicans for snatching healthcare from millions. Republicans would be making a terrible blunder to let that intimidate them from fixing the program—especially winding down ‘free’ federal money for able-bodied men on Medicaid.
“The House’s reconciliation bill outline instructed the Energy and Commerce Committee to come up with $880 billion in savings over a decade, and the GOP is now filling in the policy specifics. One worthy idea is imposing sanity on the way federal Medicaid money flows to the states.
“Here is the core dysfunction. The feds pick up roughly 50% to 77% of the tab (depending on the state) for pregnant women, the disabled and other low-income populations. But the feds pay 90% for prime-age adults eligible under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. The enhanced funding was a Democratic bribe to bait states into expanding their programs under ObamaCare. It also contradicted the founding purpose of Medicaid, which was to help the poor.
“You won’t find many voters who think the federal government should focus scarce health resources on working-age men over poor children and pregnant women. Yet that is what the perverse financing formula encourages, as states can grab more federal dollars if they sign up more prime-age adults.
“A 2022 study from the Mercatus Center looked at spending growth patterns in states that took the expansion money compared with those that didn’t. It found ‘strong evidence’ in Medicaid expansion states ‘of a shift of financial resources away from certain vulnerable enrollee populations, the most notable being from low-income children.’
“The GOP can make the strong and accurate argument that fixing this bias in federal payments is shoring up the program to better serve the vulnerable. Paragon Health Institute, a think tank, has done the intellectual leg work for the GOP and rolled out proposals to rationalize the payment treatment over time...
“One lesson of the failure to repeal ObamaCare is that Democrats and the media will attack GOP proposals no matter what the details are. The press coverage won’t improve a whit if the GOP retreats on Medicaid, but Republicans will have wasted a generational opportunity to improve the social safety net and U.S. finances.”
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Medicaid program is broken andfailing the most vulnerable Americans it was designed to support. Federal spending on Medicaidhas skyrocketed, while access to quality care for beneficiaries has declined.
It’s time to face reality: theera of unlimited, unaccountable spending has reached its breaking point. We must beginby reducing the debt—a daunting but not insurmountable challenge—and focus our resources on those who need them most.
The House and Senate recently agreed to the Fiscal Year 2025House Concurrent Budget Resolution, whichincludes instructions for the House to reduce our overall indebtedness by reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio by ten percentage points. It also sets forth a legislative blueprint that empowers Congress to cut waste, fraud, and abuse, while preserving programs for the most vulnerable.
MORE FROM THE HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE
Find Chairman Arrington’s recent interview with The Fox News Rundown Podcast about preventing waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid HERE.
Read about how California extended free taxpayer funded health insurance to illegal aliens through the state’s Medicaid program HERE.
