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.
Paragon referenced in The Wall Street Journal – May 5, 2025
On May 5, 2025, The Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board recognized Praragon Health Institute as a key player in the policy debate surrounding Medicaid reform.
From the article:
You won’t find many voters who think the federal government should focus scarce health resources on working-age men over poor children and pregnant women. Yet that is what the perverse financing formula encourages, as states can grab more federal dollars if they sign up more prime-age adults.
A 2022 study from the Mercatus Center looked at spending growth patterns in states that took the expansion money compared with those that didn’t. It found “strong evidence” in Medicaid expansion states “of a shift of financial resources away from certain vulnerable enrollee populations, the most notable being from low-income children.”
The GOP can make the strong and accurate argument that fixing this bias in federal payments is shoring up the program to better serve the vulnerable. Paragon Health Institute, a think tank, has done the intellectual leg work for the GOP and rolled out proposals to rationalize the payment treatment over time.
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