“A Permanent Pandemic Means a Huge Medicaid Expansion”

 

“A Permanent Pandemic Means a Huge Medicaid Expansion,” by Joel Zinberg and Gary D. Alexander, Wall Street Journal

Quote:

“Covid is now endemic, yet the Biden administration keeps extending the public-health emergency. Its goal is to preserve the expansion of the welfare state through Medicaid, even though large and growing numbers of enrollees are ineligible for the benefit.

“Medicaid, the federal-state entitlement that provides health insurance to nearly 1 in 4 Americans, ballooned during the pandemic. Enrollments had declined in 2018 and 2019, but jumped by 15.9 million—about 25%—between February 2020 and February 2022. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the increase was “due, in large part, to the continuous enrollment condition” in Congress’s March 2020 Covid relief package, which encouraged enrollments by temporarily increasing the federal government’s share of total Medicaid costs by 6.2% while prohibiting states that accepted Washington’s help from redetermining Medicaid eligibility and removing ineligible people from the rolls until the emergency ended.”

 

LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform:

This WSJ op-ed is co-authored by my friend and PHI colleague Gary Alexander. If you want to read it but don’t have access to the Wall Street Journal, let me know and I’ll forward you a copy from the Center’s subscription.