January 4, 2023

Montana Moves to Stop Medicaid for Ineligible Enrollees

Brian Blase, Joe Albanese, Doug Badger and Bonner R. Cohen

Brian Blase

President at Paragon Health Institute

Brian Blase, Ph.D., is the President of Paragon Health Institute. Brian was Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the White House’s National Economic Council (NEC) from 2017-2019, where he coordinated the development and execution of numerous health policies and advised the President, NEC director, and senior officials. After leaving the White House, Brian founded Blase Policy Strategies and served as its CEO.

Joe Albanese

Senior Policy Analyst at Paragon Health Institute

Joe Albanese is a Senior Policy Analyst with Paragon Health Institute. He comes to Paragon with over six years of federal and nonprofit public policy experience.

Doug Badger

Public Advisor

Doug Badger’s career in public policy spans more than three decades and includes stints as a policy adviser to the White House, the U.S. Senate, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration.

Bonner R. Cohen

On January 4, 2023, Paragon’s Brian Blase, PhD, and Public Advisor Doug Badger were quoted in Health Care News by the Heartland Institute. From the article titled “Montana Moves to Stop Medicaid for Ineligible Enrollees”:

Medicaid’s growing problems are rooted in the program’s structure, which has failed to adapt to the demands placed on it, Blase says.

“States lack incentive to ensure value from Medicaid,” wrote Blase. “The federal government typically pays about 65 percent of Medicaid’s costs with no cap on federal expenditures. Because of COVID-related Medicaid policies, the federal government now reimburses about 70 percent of program expenditures. Meanwhile, CMS has never prioritized program integrity.”

In June 2022, says Blase, 82.3 million people were enrolled in Medicaid, up from 55.0 million in 2013 prior to the ACA expansion of the program, and enrollment has continued to grow. About half of that growth was due to the expansion of Medicaid to able-bodied, working-age adults, with the other half the result of increased federal spending during COVID, according to Blase.

Skyrocketing costs have gone hand in hand with the surge in enrollees who are not eligible for the program, according to Blase.

“The Urban Institute estimated that 15.8 million ineligible people were on Medicaid as of September 30, 2022—a number that will increase as long as the public health emergency is extended,” wrote Blase.

The full article can be found in Health Care News by the Heartland Institute.

Medicaid

Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), COVID-19