Where’s outrage?
The scandal everyone misinterprets
Three-point-four billion. That’s a rough (probably low) estimate of how many taxpayer dollars Arkansas spent on ineligible Medicaid enrollees in recent times.
These dollars went to ineligible enrollees instead of low-income children, pregnant women, seniors, and individuals with severe disabilities.
Why? Well, during the covid-19 pandemic, the state’s regular annual review process was put on hold and they were unable to remove ineligible enrollees, with a few exceptions. Even if a Medicaid enrollee found a job with health insurance, the federal government wouldn’t let Arkansas remove them from the Medicaid rolls.
The prohibition on removing ineligible enrollees did not end until April of this year. But last week, the Arkansas Department of Human Services
(DHS) announced they had completed their long-overdue clean-up of the state’s Medicaid rolls.
What they found should shock you: According to DHS, there were 427,000 enrollees in total who were removed from the rolls. That’s roughly one-third of where enrollment stood before DHS started doing reviews (1.2 million people, or more than a third of our state’s population).
Taxpayers spend about $8,000 per year per Medicaid enrollee in Arkansas. So assuming these ineligible enrollees were on Medicaid improperly for even just a year, that’s $3.4 billion.
It is a scandal and an outrage. Billions of taxpayer dollars went to individuals who didn’t qualify for the program, instead of going to those who were truly eligible and/or truly needy.
But if you’ve heard of this scandal at all, I dare suggest you probably have not heard it described appropriately. Sure, there have been lots of news stories about the “evil” Sanders administration “cruelly” removing hundreds of thousands from Medicaid. The few remaining local Democrats even held a press conference, trying to generate outrage about the removals through a series of accusations and non sequiturs.
They are all missing the point, intentionally or not.
No mention of the billions wasted on ineligible enrollees; no mention of the fact that our safety net is now significantly stronger than it was this time six months ago; and no mention of the resources diverted away from Arkansans who truly rely on Medicaid for their very survival.
Instead, their empathy is focused on those who didn’t qualify for Medicaid—some of whom no doubt were on the program for three years, since the pandemic began, and may have been ineligible for much of that time, all on the backs of taxpayers.
Medicaid is a critical program for truly vulnerable Arkansans, from Texarkana to Jonesboro and Lake Village to Siloam Springs. There should be palpable outrage that $3.4 billion was flushed, taken from hardworking Arkansas taxpayers and siphoned away from low-income kids, pregnant women, and individuals with severe disabilities, sent instead to those who didn’t even qualify.
And for those who were removed? They have lots of options, despite what you’ve read in the news. Medicaid is far from their only option and is even further from their best option.
Nearly every private-sector job (90 percent) comes with employer-sponsored health insurance, which is certainly far better coverage than what Medicaid provides. More providers accept private coverage because reimbursement rates for Medicaid are a fraction of private insurance.
Many Arkansans no doubt left Medicaid because they had gone back to work and already obtained private coverage. Many left because their incomes had exceeded the program’s already-high limits. Many (if not most) now qualify for Obamacare exchange subsidies, which gives them virtually free health insurance via federal taxpayers. Many moved out of state. Some passed away. Some, according to DHS, simply opted out.
And there’s a whole host of other reasons why someone might leave the Medicaid program, none of which involve “punishing poor people” as so many have falsely stated.
Medicaid enrollment is now under 900,000 in Arkansas, the lowest in years. This is, plain and simple, good news for taxpayers and for the truly needy who need Medicaid to survive.
Instead of buying into the faux outrage about the removals, there should be widespread outrage about how we got here in the first place, and all of the money that was wasted.
In turn, we should be grateful to the Sanders administration, particularly the folks at DHS, who worked overtime to restore some semblance of integrity to the program.
And frankly, we should be celebrating that so many Arkansans are no longer dependent on government and that our Medicaid program is now significantly healthier for those who truly have nowhere else to turn.
Nic Horton is the founder and CEO of Opportunity Arkansas, a nonprofit policy organization that is renewing Arkansas as the Land of Opportunity by simplifying government and solving generational problems. To learn more, visit OpportunityArkansas.org.