Media hits

Let’s Get Real: Arkansas’ Work Requirements Reporting Rules Are Anything But Onerous

/ Nic Horton / Leave a comment

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In June, Arkansas became the first state to ever implement a work requirement in Medicaid, after winning approval for the reform from the Trump administration in March. This speedy implementation—and pursuit of the work requirement in the first place—was, arguably, the most significant policy achievement of Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson’s tenure. And the implementation wasn’t just swift—it was methodical and thoughtful as well, and the Hutchinson administration has bent over backwards to make compliance as simple as possible, giving more able-bodied Arkansans a path out of the welfare trap.

Yet advocates of perpetual welfare dependency have been apoplectic, even filing a lawsuit to move Arkansas backwards. They claim that reporting work is too complex and onerous for Medicaid enrollees to possibly understand. In addition to being incredibly condescending, this claim couldn’t be further from the truth. Continue reading →

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National Review: The Biggest Welfare Crisis You’ve Never Heard Of

/ Nic Horton / Leave a comment

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Medicaid is out of control and unsustainable. Work requirements could help.

It’s not the lead story on the nightly news, and it’s not generating millions of clicks online. It may be one of the most underreported, underappreciated public-policy crises of our time. That’s a terrifying reality because, left unaddressed, this crisis will come at great cost to America’s most vulnerable.

The Medicaid program is at its breaking point. Even before Obamacare lured some states into expanding the program to non-disabled, working-age adults, Medicaid was growing at an alarming rate. Now, in the Obamacare era, the program is growing even faster, siphoning more and more resources away from folks who truly depend on Medicaid for survival.

A new report, released this week by the Foundation for Government Accountability, gives a glimpse of just how serious the problem is.

Continue reading →

The Oklahoman: Declining Medicaid Expansion a “Wise Decision”

/ Nic Horton / Leave a comment

ok-largemapEarlier this week, The Oklahoman editorial board published an editorial praising Oklahoma policymakers for rejecting ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion. As evidence, they cited FGA’s new enrollment explosion report.

From The Oklahoman:

During the 2016 legislative session, there was a strong push to expand Oklahoma’s Medicaid program to obtain funding from the Affordable Care Act. Ultimately, lawmakers declined to take that step. It’s proving to be a wise decision…

A recent report by the Foundation for Government Accountability notes that expansion enrollment exceeded projections by 322 percent in California, 276 percent in New York, 134 percent in Kentucky, 90 percent in Illinois, 60 percent in Ohio and 51 percent in Arkansas.

That means the cost of the 10 percent state share for Medicaid expansion will be commensurately higher as well. And federal data shows that Medicaid expansion spending was 49 percent higher per enrollee in 2015 than what was predicted when the law passed in 2010.

At the same time, Medicaid expansion isn’t generating the savings supporters promised, such as lowering the use of emergency rooms for routine care.

You can read the full editorial here.

WSJ Editorial Page Covers FGA’s ObamaCare Enrollment Report

/ Nic Horton / 1 Comment

Wall Street JournalYesterday, The Wall Street Journal editorial page covered our ObamaCare expansion explosion report that published last week, calling the explosion itself an “embarrassment:”

In a new report this week for the Foundation for Government Accountability, Jonathan Ingram and Nicholas Horton tracked down the original enrollment projections by actuaries in 24 states that expanded and have since disclosed at least a year of data on the results. Some 11.5 million people now belong to ObamaCare’s new class of able-bodied enrollees, or 110% higher than the projections.  Continue reading →

Fox News covers FGA’s ObamaCare expansion report

/ Nic Horton / 1 Comment

og-fn-foxnewsFox News covered our new report on ObamaCare expansion’s enrollment crisis. Here’s a snippet:

Adult enrollment in ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion has more than doubled expectations in states across the country — pointing to ballooning costs that threaten budget dollars for priorities like education and infrastructure, according to a report released Wednesday by The Foundation for Government Accountability.

Newly obtained data from 24 of the 29 states with Medicaid expansions show at least 11.5 million able-bodied adults have enrolled. The FGA says adult enrollment for all these states exceeds projections, by an average of 110 percent. Some states have signed up more than four times as many adults as they expected would enroll. Continue reading →