The government is wasting more than $16 billion of taxpayers’ money a month keeping an estimated 21 million Medicaid recipients enrolled who earn too much to be on the program. Now the Biden administration is preparing a mandate that will make this crisis of taxpayer abuse permanent and lead to even more fiscal pain. State leaders are the only ones who can stop it, and they have to act soon.
In March 2020, Congress started giving states extra Medicaid funding on the condition that they maintain enrollment for everyone, even recipients who start making too much money to qualify. This policy, which is tied to the federal public-health emergency, was supposed to be temporary, lasting as long as the Covid pandemic required it. Though President Biden declared victory over the pandemic more than a year ago, his administration is set to renew the emergency declaration for the 12th time in January, likely keeping it in effect until April 2023.
The Covid Medicaid Money Grab
The government is wasting more than $16 billion of taxpayers’ money a month keeping an estimated 21 million Medicaid recipients enrolled who earn too much to be on the program. Now the Biden administration is preparing a mandate that will make this crisis of taxpayer abuse permanent and lead to even more fiscal pain. State leaders are the only ones who can stop it, and they have to act soon.
In March 2020, Congress started giving states extra Medicaid funding on the condition that they maintain enrollment for everyone, even recipients who start making too much money to qualify. This policy, which is tied to the federal public-health emergency, was supposed to be temporary, lasting as long as the Covid pandemic required it. Though President Biden declared victory over the pandemic more than a year ago, his administration is set to renew the emergency declaration for the 12th time in January, likely keeping it in effect until April 2023.