AMAC Exclusive – By Sam Adolphsen
The nation’s largest welfare program, Medicaid, is a total mess. We are fast approaching 100 million people on the program, mostly because of expansions to able-bodied adults. States spend one of every three state budget dollars on the program – and more than one of every five of those dollars is spent in error. On top of that, states have been banned from removing ineligible people since early 2020 because of the so-called public health emergency that President Joe Biden keeps extending.
If Medicaid were a person, they would be drowning.
Now, the Biden administration’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing a new regulation that would make things much worse. The rule would make significant changes to state welfare eligibility processes, adding millions to welfare and adding $100 billion in new costs to taxpayers.
This latest proposed Medicaid rule would be like helping that poor drowning person by throwing them a cement block.
If President Biden is looking to finish off the program and send it to the bottom, he nailed it.
Of course, the administration isn’t really hiding its plan. The stated goal of the rule is to “maximize enrollment.” They talk about “retention rates” as if it’s a for-profit business, and how they need to “remove barriers to enrollment,” as if that’s a problem, with nearly a third of the country already on the program.
Biden’s 300-plus-page regulation has so many terrible welfare eligibility policies that it’s difficult to pick just a few on which to focus. But there are some that stand out as especially damaging to the integrity of the country’s safety net.
First, the new rule would prohibit all states from checking eligibility more than once a year. Under President Obama, CMS had already banned states from more frequent checks for certain populations. This proposed rule would expand that bad policy by making the previous minimum level of eligibility checks (once a year) the new maximum for everyone in the program. Some states check more often than once a year right now, and they should, because there are at least 16 million ineligible people on the program.
Second, the rule would ban states from requiring face-to-face interviews for any eligibility groups. This change comes despite the constant news about the significant problems with identity theft across all welfare benefits and COVID-19 unemployment programs. It is common sense that if states are going to hand out a costly welfare benefit, they should require one simple office visit before awarding that benefit. President Biden wants to ban that common-sense check.
Third, the rule creates an entirely new eligibility process for states, requiring them to keep cases open for months even after they determine someone is ineligible. This new “reconsideration period” would also force states to handhold someone to apply for alternative coverage before they can remove them from Medicaid. This also contradicts the entire stated justification for the rule, that it will “reduce the administrative burden” on states.
As if that weren’t bad enough, the rule would also require states to ignore returned mail if the new address is an in-state address. CMS outrageously claims that a change of address “does not indicate a change in circumstances.” Any reasonable person knows that isn’t true. A change in mailing address likely signals a meaningful shift in life circumstances that could affect eligibility.
Another crazy requirement in the Biden administration’s welfare proposal is that states will be required to accept as gospel certain government data sets. While this may seem smart at first glance, the policy only applies when the data indicates that the person is eligible for Medicaid. What happens if the data shows they are ineligible? Then the state must undertake a series of administrative-intensive follow-ups to ensure the person is ineligible. CMS only wants “administrative efficiency” when it will add someone to welfare, never when it would keep someone ineligible from being added.
One final bit of Medicaid madness is that the proposed rule would prohibit states from requiring ID verification as part of the process of reviewing an immigrant’s citizenship status when they apply for Medicaid. This is not surprising coming from Open Borders Biden, but it is alarming. There are many more problems with the proposal, including that it is probably illegal.
The bottom line is that one of the country’s chief safety net programs, Medicaid, has already been stretched and shredded by expansions to able-bodied adults and abysmal program integrity. Now Biden has doubled down, throwing program integrity completely out the window to push the country toward welfare for all. States need to step up and oppose this latest attack on Medicaid.
So glad my time at DHS was only 3 1/2 months! I witnessed a huge nightmare!
This DISGUST me! The Biden Admin needs a FRICKEN reality check … NOTHING IS FREE!!!
I think that Biden is completely compromised by the CCP; every action he takes is a step to further benefit the CCP now and later.
Demented senile old communist
When are patriotic Americans going to wake-up and roll-up their sleeves and volunteer to get the C.O.S. (Convention of States) enacted which then forces the government to obey the directives of C.O.S. – AMAC
Another travesty being pushed on law abiding taxpayers.
Yup why work. Pres dumb dumb will feed and care for you take care of all your medical needs and possibly even wipe your butt for you.
Don’t forget he’s working on making everyone a voting democrat. If not you’re going to be persecuted by the feds.
We can’t get rid of him quick enough! He is bringing our country to its knees!
No respect for how taxpayer money is wasted. government in disarray with no accountability.
I am fairly certain that this is completely unconstitutional. Someone needs to sue this administration.
I’m pretty sure that this is unconstitutional. Someone needs to sue this administration.
Well the Inflation Reduction Act, the climate change and tax hike bill passed into law earlier this year with the assistance of 18 or 19 RINOs who couldn’t wait to “race across the aisle”, authorized a whole slew of changes in terms of hiking taxes surrounding Medicare starting in 2023. This is just the companion piece to those changes that the Democrats have planned to enact for quite some time regarding Medicaid. The increased taxes associated with Medicare starting in 2023 will help fund part of this “free” expansion of Medicaid. Get used to it folks, because this is what “transformational change” looks like in real-world implementation. So adapt as best as you can accordingly.
None of this of course had to occur, but this is what happens when people decide so-called “mean tweets” are more important than the 110-page socialist manifesto of changes that the Democrats ran on in 2020. Expect the “transformational changes” to keep on coming from the Team Biden White House all the way up the 2024 elections.
This is part of the Left’s adherence to Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”. You overspend on government programs excessively and destroy health care and the economy. America is under attack by Marxist extremists. We have to wake up and hold them accountable!
I was on medicaid Healthcare several years ago. I literally cannot get them to remove me even though I have other coverage and I’m ineligible. It is crazy. I’ve made call after call with nothing but run arounds and excuses. The liberal welfare state is insane.
Your headline is totally misleading. This article is about MEDICAID, not MEDICARE. Two different plans and two different populations.
Medicaid
NO.
When are you going to learn that every time you put a Communist liberal in office they RUIN our country and EVERYTHING GOES UP IN PRICES WITH ALWAYS NEW AND MORE TAXES AND OUR COUNTRY WEAKENED EVERY TIME AND MORE OF YOUR FREEDOMS TAKEN AWAY WITH OUR JOBS SENT OVERSEAS?
WHEN?
I have worked all my life—at 76 I was fired and lost my insurance coverage. I now find out that I have no viable options for coverage except Medicare and. I hate it. Looking for another job as an RN but so far everyone wants Covid vaccine which I refuse. I had a religious exemption but many of the companies are saying no exemption. No health issues . Any suggestions?
Biden is simply out to DESTROY Medicare for American Senior Citizens. This is a NATIONAL CRIME and a MORAL SIN. He doesn’t care, because it doesn’t affect him!
You know how else it gets overburdened? I’m still working. My husband is still working. We both had great plans through the office. But then we were FORCED onto Medicare strictly because of age. I liked my previous insurance. But I wasn’t allowed to keep it.
WAKE UP AMERICA! Joe is aware of what he doing. He is just stupid. He is compromised and will do anything for the distinction of having been POTUS. He has sold his soul for that distinction and does not care about anyone/anything but himself and what/who belongs to him. He does NOT care about this country. When those who are pulling his strings are finished with him that will be all for Joe. It can’t happen too soon!
When will democrat voters realize that they are supporting Nazi, communist, socialist politicians when they vote for these jerks?
This Moran we have for President is destroying the basic fabric of this country. How in the world this country could elect this senile fake President is beyond me, are we all fools or just plain stupid?? It seems that a great number of Americans have a true death wish and could care less about protecting America from dying. From no oil drilling and open boarders to WOKE policies shoved down all are throats to reflect virtual signaling of the worst kind. From liberal Dems thinking that men can have babies, to saying that all-white people are racist, real ignorance prevails. Now deluding Medicare with many people who have not paid into it, yes that will really work!!! This is another way Dems are trying to buy votes. 2024 cannot get here soon enough, hopefully before America goes down the drain!!!
Neither liberals nor conservatives have a real solution. One gives what they don’t have and without authentication, and the other withholds giving during need pending documentation and investigation to make sure that what is claimed is true.How hard it is to help those in need according to their need, with means for self-reliance for able bodies, and support to get there for those that are not, and for a permanent solution for the elderly whom may not be able to successfully change conditions. The idea is help when needed, that provides to solve, not merely to follow a general criteria according to available funds even when it does not solve the need. If concerned, than let us propose solutions not just different methods shrugging our shoulders to those humans among us that have needs because of misuse by those that take advantage of any system for gain.
40% of republicans stayed home, didn’t even bother to vote in the mid-term election. We could have impeached Biden, then Harris, and had a republican speaker of the house in the presidency. Seems like that would have been worth getting off the couch for.
All you have to do to understand what the Biden administration is doing is look up “Cloward & Piven”. That will explain everything.
This guy needs to go.Hes destroying everything
Can I get on Medicaid to supplement Part A and C. My daughter has Medicare and has better coverage than I do
The democraps are doing all they can to destroy America and our constitution, economy, while dividing the Country at the same time. The Republicans who I affiliate with do NOTHING to stop this insanity. I need become an independent. I feel our Country is lost and all the millions who died or are disable from wars for our Country means nothing to these demons. What can be Done? I used to write my congressmen, Senators , and our Presidents from Clinton to the Jack in the Box idiot we have
Now and all I get are the same canned replies. I voted some of them in. Damn!!! I loved this country and it’s infuriating to watch what jojo Biteme biden is doing. Best to all
I am 69 yoa and do not take prescription medication. I do not have a “preferred physician “and for the last 20 years have lost trust in the western medical community. In 2020 I lost complete trust in my local medical community. I never understood why my doctors would never try and figure out why I had a medical ailment and instead prescribed pharmaceuticals that only treated the condition but not the cause. Our environment and what we eat is a major cause of our illnesses and pharmaceuticals will not fix that.
Trump has lied 500000 times. That’s half a million.
I’ll write my Congressmen whether their in my district or not. I have four House Representatives and two Senators. I’ll back it up with phone calls to all of these people.
Brandon’s socialist plan has to be stopped. Force the country to balance the budget or close down the government. When that happens people will go back to work to eat. Socialism does not work. It’s a can with holes in it. As long as money, earned money, is being pored into the bucket faster than it runs out, its viable. Once printed money, not earned, is forced into the stream, the printed money has less value, volume, the bucket is less full. If the flow out of the bucket remains the same and the bucket level is lower, less volume, the bucket is drained with no earnings. Socialism kills countries. Their population is forces to live off the government, and by that time the government authoritarianism turns on the population to control them so they will take what the government gives them. What they give will be far less than before because the money flow is gone. Then, if you raise questions you dye! Socialism 101!
Medicare for all didn’t fly. So without further ado – make it Medicaid for all! Same bankrupt results.
Another way for Biden to buy votes.
Another FAILED policy to RAISE TAXES so WE CAN HAVE SMALLER PAY CHECKS TO PAY FOR HIS ILLEGAL ALIEN TERRORIST INVASION WITH FREE GOVERNMENT BENEFITS FOR BRIBERY SO THEY WILL Vote For FASCIST liberal’s ILLEGALLY.
Take DICTATOR Beijing biden’s Green New Deal. He lies about Global Warming.
Just ask Europe the $800 Billion they wasted on their Green New Deal. Europe has had to OPEN COAL MINES and COAL POWER PLANTS back up so they can have ENERGY for the WINTER.
That speaks volumes alone.
Instead of DRILLING in USA, DICTATOR Beijing biden gives Chevron a license to Drill in Venezuela where they have DIRTY OIL.
and we let it happen. thank you one and all for not standing up… 2,526,000 voting age people and 4,354,979 fighting age people letting a few dozen commie Demoncrats rule. un-frigging believable
R.I.P. 1776/Commie biden Democrats!!
What can we do… if you think, say, or ask these 4 words
you are the problem
Doe Ray Me Fa Q biden
Not good to claim Medicare in the title when it is all about Medicaid. Medicare is not a welfare issue. It is what we have put into all of our lives because we held a job all those years. Medicaid is welfare, supposedly for those who need help. But it turned into a massive entitlement and they want to expand it to control as many as they can.
Your title is misleading as it uses word “Medicare” but article is all about “Medicaid.” The information you share is important but reflecting subject inaccurately can lead to mistrust of your integrity and motives. We certainly don’t need more of that today.
It has come to the attention of the current administration that people in their 50-60’s who’ve been on medicaid for a lengthy time have been choosing not to work at a job where their wages would be reported. Resulting from that choice, their social security payments will be far less than people who worked at regular jobs. That makes it necessary to keep them on medicaid so they don’t become additions to the many in poverty.
If Biden, ruled by Obama, Soros and other very socialist politicians, suggests it then it will not be good for America or Americans. Medicare or Medicaid, he wishes to destroy them both. The whole idea is to promote anarchy by slowly “boiling” the middle class and the American Constitution. But so many simply cannot believe they want to end America they turn a blind eye to ALL the destructive actions taken by their individual Presidencies and think ‘oh they are just mislead’… Yeah, Stalin was mislead into killing 50 million Russians in the ’30s to make his country and their corrupt ideology look good… Red China was mislead in the Great Leap Forward, millions died. Any socialist agenda does one thing, kill! Ideas, dreams or people, makes no difference.
Mary Ann Jocoy
With all the corruption and Idiot policies plus a Braindead Puppet President I think the Boarder Crisis will cure itself!
If this madness persists for another term nobody will want to come to this broke, Socialist country with Boys that think they are girls and vice-versa, white house full of misfit weirdoes!
This article is misleading with the title . It states Medicare which leads you to read an article that is truly about medicaid. While I is a hard article to digest reading what he and his state cronies plan to do. It is not about Medicare ! Why did y’all mislead ? There is enough of this going on…….
ONE of communisms main tenets is to take over the health care system. Notice how they are doing this right under the eyes of the “AMERICAN” people! “useful idiots” also a term coined by lenin! Boy I would sure would like to roll the clock back and not bust my ass to have healthcare insurance WHILE MY WIFE AND I WERE GRADUATE STUDENTS WITH A NEWBORN DAUGHTER!!! We could have had a life instead of TAKING CARE OF OUR RESPONSIBILITES!!
The States have more power than they are using as Governor Desantis of Florida has proved.
Strong Governors can and should refuse to follow almost any and all dictates from the Feds because it is another overreach of the Federal Gov.
Weak Governors have let the Fed overreach into states rights until states and citizens are being trampled by the Federal Gov. That how Tyranny starts.
This has to stop.
Biden thinks he is FDR.
This is on purpose. If everyone is on “Medicare” it will be much easier for the Biden regime to cross over and implement the United Nations healthcare program they are currently working on for ALL 196 member countries. I know rationing of healthcare for the elderly is one of the mandates in the program. This is actually every Senior Citizen’s worst nightmare. Biden continues to destroy America, one executive order at a time. He must go!