What do air conditioners, mini fridges, and air purifiers have in common? According to Medicaid authorities in Oregon, they’re all forms of health care.
Across the country, state Medicaid programs are suffering from a serious case of mission creep. Officials are trying to use Medicaid dollars to pay for everything from housing to food to home appliances.
Not only is this an abuse of Medicaid’s purpose — to provide health coverage to low-income Americans. It’s an abuse of tax dollars. Spending on the program is spiraling; it’s projected to exceed $1 trillion by 2028. Spending Medicaid dollars on things that are at best tangential to health care will stretch the program to a breaking point — and in so doing put the health of vulnerable people at risk.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.
Medicaid’s Mission Creep Is Hurting the Poor and Disabled
Sally C. Pipes
What do air conditioners, mini fridges, and air purifiers have in common? According to Medicaid authorities in Oregon, they’re all forms of health care.
Across the country, state Medicaid programs are suffering from a serious case of mission creep. Officials are trying to use Medicaid dollars to pay for everything from housing to food to home appliances.
Not only is this an abuse of Medicaid’s purpose — to provide health coverage to low-income Americans. It’s an abuse of tax dollars. Spending on the program is spiraling; it’s projected to exceed $1 trillion by 2028. Spending Medicaid
Click to read the full article in Townhall.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.