On Aug. 31, the Biden administration’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a 300-page proposed rule aimed at expanding Obamacare’s fast-track Medicaid enrollment policies, fostering even greater dependency on government. Specifically, the proposed rule would expedite Medicaid enrollment and limit eligibility reviews, making it easier for ineligible people to continue receiving benefits. This rule will mean more people on public programs, greater costs, and fewer safeguards in place to protect the program from waste, fraud, and abuse. This express lane rule should be stopped in its tracks.
Democrats’ main health policy aim is to increase enrollment in Medicaid and federal, rather than state, control of the program. Massively expanding Medicaid appears to be their chosen path to a universal healthcare system.
Medicaid is now our largest public welfare program, enrolling 82 million people . Obamacare significantly expanded the Medicaid program to able-bodied, working-age adults. Federal COVID-19 policies increased dependency on Medicaid by blocking states from removing ineligible people from the program. As a result, Medicaid enrollment is up nearly 30% since early 2020, and the program is accommodating nearly 20 million people who are not eligible for it.
