Medicaid Overspending Costing Taxpayers $16B Monthly

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Real Clear Policy

The states lose a combined $1.6 billion a month, and the federal government pays another approximately $14 billion monthly on the new spending, The Wall Street Journal reported. That comes from keeping 21 million people on Medicaid even though they earn too much money, as Biden plans to keep them permanently on the program that provides free or low-cost health coverage to low-income people.

As the pandemic was hitting states in March 2020, Congress gave each extra Medicaid funding “with the condition that they maintain enrollment for everyone, even recipients who start making too much money to qualify,” The Journal’s editorial board said.

In August, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed a mandate to ensure “continuity of coverage for eligible beneficiaries,” but what it will actually do is make it more difficult for states to find ineligible recipients and remove them, The Journal argued.