{"id":14539,"date":"2025-05-28T17:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T17:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14539"},"modified":"2025-05-28T18:10:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T18:10:05","slug":"the-gops-medicaid-waste-fraud-and-abuse-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14539","title":{"rendered":"The GOP\u2019s Medicaid \u201cWaste, Fraud, and Abuse\u201d Lie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When it comes to health insurance, the One Big Beautiful Bill is one big bait-and-switch.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Bill Scher<\/a>, Washington Monthly<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was asked on Sunday by CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper<\/a> about how the $625 billion of Medicaid cuts<\/a> in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would, according to a Congressional Budget Office [CBO] estimate, take away health insurance from 7.7 million people<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson replied with bald-faced lies, beginning with, \u201cWe are not cutting Medicaid in this package.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How could Johnson possibly turn $625 billion into $0? By deeming it \u201cwaste, fraud, and abuse\u201d: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The numbers of Americans who are affected are those that are entwined in our work to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse. So, what do I mean by that? You got more than 1.4 million illegal aliens on Medicaid. Medicaid is not intended for non-U.S. citizens\u2026<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s break in to note that the number of \u201cillegal aliens\u201d or undocumented immigrants on Medicaid is zero because they are not eligible for Medicaid.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourteen states, however, have health insurance programs\u2014not funded by federal Medicaid dollars\u2014that include undocumented immigrants (covering an estimated 1.9 million people, including 300,000 children<\/a>).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The One Big Beautiful Bill punishes states with such programs by reducing their Medicaid funds. The CBO estimates<\/a> it will strip 1.4 million immigrants of coverage<\/a>; that\u2019s where Johnson gets the 1.4 million number. But it\u2019s not people \u201con Medicaid,\u201d so it\u2019s not evidence of Medicaid fraud.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ok, let\u2019s return to Johnson\u2019s answer to Tapper on State of the Union<\/em>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s intended for the most vulnerable populations of Americans, which is pregnant women and young single mothers, the disabled, the elderly. They are protected in what we\u2019re doing because we\u2019re preserving the resources for those who need it most. You\u2019re talking about 4.8 million able-bodied workers, young men, for example, who are on Medicaid and not working. They are choosing not to work when they can. That is called fraud. They are cheating the system.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

First, Republicans have been using this \u201c4.8 million able-bodied men\u2026 on Medicaid and not working\u201d number but have failed to produce evidence. Earlier this month, after several House and Senate members claimed the number came from a CBO estimate, The Washington Post<\/em><\/a> and Snopes<\/em><\/a> asked CBO for the document. CBO did not comply or give any explanation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, Johnson said Medicaid is \u201cintended for the most vulnerable populations of Americans, which is pregnant women and young single mothers, the disabled, the elderly.\u201d But, as The New Republic\u2019s <\/em>Timothy Noah, a Washington Monthly<\/em> contributing editor, emphasized recently<\/a>, there is another vulnerable population for which Medicaid was originally intended: the unemployed. <\/em>When Medicaid began, unemployment was an entr\u00e9e into the program, though Congress and presidential administrations of both parties have expanded eligibility multiple times to cover more and more of the working class.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, able-bodied people who are not working but are receiving Medicaid are not defrauding the government. Such persons are legally eligible.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans, in the One Big Beautiful Bill, want to require that Medicaid recipients spend 80 hours a month working, volunteering, or attending school. They can certainly make the case for such a policy, but that\u2019s not the law today. As Thom Walsh noted in the Washington Monthly<\/em> on Tuesday (See Medicaid Work Requirements Don\u2019t Work<\/a>), such a policy would burden small and rural hospitals, likely leading to layoffs of precisely the kind of low-income workers who would end up seeking Medicare in a vicious cycle. (See also Washington Monthly<\/em> Contributing Editor Anne Kim\u2019s explainer video on Medicaid work requirements<\/a>.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourth, Johnson isn\u2019t on the level regarding the impact of the proposed requirements. He talks as if they would only ensnare those who aren\u2019t working, but the employed will lose coverage, too.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson tacitly admits this with his flimsy numbers: 4.8 million \u201cable-bodied\u201d plus 1.4 million \u201cillegal aliens\u201d equals 6.2 million people. But, again, the CBO estimated that 7.7 million will lose coverage from all the Medicaid changes: work requirements and reduced payments to states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work requirements may have a more severe impact than CBO projects. An analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities<\/a>, based on the results of a similar work requirement policy implemented in Arkansas, concluded, \u201c9.7 million to 14.4 million people at risk of losing Medicaid coverage,\u201d in part because \u201crequirements frequently end up pushing eligible people off Medicaid because they don\u2019t receive or submit the necessary paperwork, or because the state fails to process the paperwork.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It gets worse. On top of the 7.7 million estimate, CBO projects<\/a> another 900,000 will lose coverage from restrictive rule changes to the Affordable Care Act in the One Big Beautiful Bill. (And the total dollar figure of health coverage spending cuts from both Medicaid and ACA is $912 billion.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One fundamental health policy change, separate from Medicaid, is not<\/em> in the One Big Beautiful Bill: a renewal of the Biden administration\u2019s expanded health coverage tax credits enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act. Letting those expire, according to CBO, will mean another 4.2 million people losing coverage. The income eligibility for these credits is higher than that of Medicaid, which means many of those losing coverage will be people who work.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, President Donald Trump was asked by CNN<\/a>, \u201cCan you guarantee that your voters who supported you in the election, particularly working-class voters, will not lose health insurance under this bill?\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He responded, \u201cOh, they won\u2019t lose health insurance.\u201d At a minimum, that answer leaves out that working-class voters will lose insurance because of what isn\u2019tin the bill.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember when people lost their minds over Barack Obama saying, \u201cIf you like your health care plan, you\u2019ll be able to keep your health care plan,\u201d because that didn\u2019t mention how higher minimum requirements for health insurance plans would impact plan availability? Today, you have top Republicans claiming their health policy changes will only curtail \u201cwaste, fraud, abuse\u201d when, in fact, they would take away Medicaid eligibility, make it harder for those eligible to access Medicaid benefits and take away tax credits millions use to obtain private coverage.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The One Big Beautiful Bill is one big bait-and-switch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bill Scher is the politics editor of the Washington Monthly. He is the host of the history podcast When America Worked and the cohost of the bipartisan online show and podcast The DMZ. Follow Bill on X @BillScher.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donate to LRTV<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to health insurance, the One Big Beautiful Bill is one big bait-and-switch. By Bill Scher, Washington Monthly Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was asked on Sunday by CNN’s Jake Tapper about […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,67],"tags":[93,85],"class_list":["post-14539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-slider","category-healthcare","tag-healthcare","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14539"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14544,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14539\/revisions\/14544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}