Brian Blase Referenced in The Washington Post – March 2, 2025

On March 2, 2025, Paragon’s Brian Blase was quoted in The Washington Post on the issue of Medicaid money laundering.

From the article:

“The health-care industry doesn’t want to change anything. States don’t want to change anything,” said Blase, who now serves as president of Paragon Health Institute, a right-leaning think tank. He criticized “the proliferation of financing gimmicks,” such as taxing health-care providers to draw down additional Medicaid reimbursement — with the money going back to providers and also being used for unrelated state priorities — and other moves that have shifted costs for the program from the state to the federal government.

…

Blase said Republicans had learned from prior attempts to pursue health-care reforms, touting his own organization’s work.

“One of the benefits now, that we didn’t have in 2017, is Paragon putting out information on what’s going on with the Medicaid program,” said Blase, whose group has published several reports and commentaries widely cited by GOP lawmakers. A newsletter written by Blase on Wednesday highlighted “wasteful” Medicaid spending growth under the Biden administration and argued that the House’s budget efforts would largely reverse that. Another recent newsletter urged lawmakers not to back away from the coming health-care fight.

“Responsible governing involves making tough decisions,” Blase wrote.

The full article can be found in The Washington Post.