Foundation for Government Accountability

Townhall: Arkansas is debunking myths about welfare reform

/ Nic Horton / Leave a comment

Almost exactly one year ago, Arkansas became the first state to ever implement commonsense work requirements for able-bodied, working-age adults on Medicaid—and the far Left freaked out.

Since that time, they’ve proceeded to outright slander the state, falsely asserting that the requirement would leave the state worse off, hurt Arkansans, and was nothing more than a “reporting requirement” designed to confuse enrollees with paperwork rather than help them find a job. They’ve waged an all-out war on work, even using the courts to try to (temporarily) thwart the will of Arkansans, who overwhelmingly support the requirement—Republicans and Democrats alike.

They’ve gone all out for a few big reasons: they want as much dependency as possible. They think a life-long welfare check is better for Americans than a paycheck. And they also know that Medicaid work requirements are a signature achievement of President Trump’s first term.

If they can stop Arkansas, they think they can stop work requirements from spreading to other states, increase dependency, and deal a blow to President Trump at the same time. For the far Left, it’s a win-win-win.

But there’s bad news for them: from Day One, they’ve been wrong about Arkansas’ commonsense welfare reform, and a new study from the Foundation from Government Accountability proves it. Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

NRO: Three Things President Trump Can Do to Reduce Dependency

/ Nic Horton / Leave a comment

ebt-57500f8f3df78c9b465ea7c9“We will get our people off of welfare and back to work,” President Trump said in his inaugural address. He continued that theme the next month at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. “It’s time for all Americans to get off of welfare and get back to work,” he told the crowd. “You’re going to love it, you’re going to love it, you’re going to love it.” And in his address to a joint session of Congress a few days later, the president boldly declared that “millions lifted from welfare to work is not too much to expect.”

This was music to the ears of hard-working Americans across the country, after eight long years of welfare expansion and increased dependency. But how can President Trump deliver on these promises? Continue reading →

FGA: The ObamaCare Expansion Enrollment Explosion

/ Nic Horton / Leave a comment

Last week, the Foundation for Government Accountability released a new report on the exploding enrollment in ObamaCare expansion across the country. The report, authored by Jonathan Ingram and Nic Horton, finds that all 17 expansion states with available data were over their Year 1 enrollment projections — by an average of 91 percent. In addition, 16 of the 17 states are already over their projected maximum total enrollment, by an average of 61 percent.

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From the report:

Across the country, states that opted into ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion have seen the number of able-bodied adults on welfare skyrocket beyond expectations. In fact, after just one year of ObamaCare expansion, several states have already seen more adults sign up for Medicaid welfare than they thought would ever sign up or even be eligible.

Some politicians have cited these enrollment surges as signs of immense “success.” Taxpayers might disagree, as the economic consequences are sure to be severe. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that Medicaid expansion will discourage work and shrink the economy.1 Recent research suggests that as many as 2.6 million able-bodied adults could drop out of the labor force as a result.2 But the generational burden for future taxpayers to fund this welfare enrollment explosion is now mounting at a faster-than-expected rate, which means higher costs and even more truly needy Medicaid patients put on the chopping block.

The report was released on April 20, 2015. You can view it here.