By Roger Stark

The authors of a recent opinion article in The Wall Street Journal found that improper spending in the Medicaid entitlement increased over 300 percent after the passage of Obamacare. (here) They made this conclusion after examining the most recent Medicaid data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Prior to the Affordable Care Act, funding for traditional Medicaid was split more or less 50/50 percent by state and federal governments. People eligible were low-income families with children, the disabled, pregnant women, and some individuals needing long-term care.

Half of the newly insured under Obamacare are in the expanded Medicaid program, where any able-bodied adult age 18 to 64 who earns less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level is eligible. The ACA enticed states to expand Medicaid because the federal government would ultimately pay 90 percent of the funding.

Improper spending was six percent of overall Medicaid costs prior to the ACA and jumped to 20 percent after expansion. The Obama Administration encouraged enrollment in the expanded program. The opinion in the WSJ article is that oversight became almost non-existent and the CMS data would substantiate this conclusion.

The federal government regulates Medicaid, but states administer the program. According to the CMS report, a few states, such as California and New York, have an extremely high rate of improper enrollment. Specific areas, such as New York City and Los Angeles, have rates so high that outright fraud becomes as issue.

State taxpayers are also federal taxpayers, so improper enrollment in Medicaid, where ever it occurs, should alarm every taxpayer in the U.S. Last year, total Medicaid spending was $616 billion which is a dramatic increase from the $5 billion spent in 1970. (here) Of course, in 1970 Medicaid was still a safety-net program as originally designed. Today, Medicaid spending can include food, housing, and transportation.

One of the problems with any large government program is lack of oversight and the resulting waste, fraud, and abuse. If bureaucrats encourage improper enrollment, this problem only gets worse.

-Dr. Stark is Health Care Policy Analyst with the Washington Policy Center. Contact him at [email protected].