(National Sentinel) Abuse: If the results of a recent analysis by Louisiana’s state auditor is any indication, states that have expanded Medicaid coverage under the auspices of Obamacare are getting ripped off royally.
Or, more appropriately, their taxpayers are getting ripped off due to fraud.
To little fanfare outside of Louisiana, state auditor Daryl G. Purpera decided to see how his state’s expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare was doing so he decided to take a look.
He selected 100 people at random and what he discovered shocked him: 82 of those selected were not eligible to receive Medicaid under Obamacare guidelines because they made too much money.
A number of people getting Medicaid made six-figure salaries; two of them made more than $300,000 a year, the Washington Times reported.
“This is huge. It really is,” he told the Times. “As more and more state auditors realize what this is doing to them, it’s going to come to a point where all 50 of them are going to have to declare they can no longer say the state’s books are accurate. I really do believe that day is coming.”
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It’s possible that Louisiana may be an exception. The Times noted that a federal inspector general report earlier this year found 38 out of 150 people sampled in California were ineligible, meaning that statewide that figure would be around 355,000.
Another report estimated that there were 50,000 in New York.
But those reports looked at broad conditions. For his audit, Purpera obtained income data from other state agencies and compared it to the 100 individuals sampled. So it’s extremely likely that were income data used by federal auditors and those in each state, the results would be just as shocking.
In his analysis, Purpera found that most who were receiving benefits should never have been approved, while others intentionally low-balled their income to get several thousands of dollars per year in Medicaid subsidies.
Meanwhile, thanks to the toxic effects of Obamacare on the free market, millions of Americans are paying out the you-know-what for lousy coverage with huge deductibles.
“The report is stunning. It is breathtaking. There are not words in English to describe what our legislative auditor found,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. “The Department of Health just threw the money in the dirt.”
He’s preparing legislation that would require every state Medicaid, welfare and food stamp program to use federal income data to verify eligibility, the Times reported.
“It’s the most accurate income data we have out there. It would be a requirement. Right now, it’s optional,” he said.
Expanding Medicaid was a key component of Obamacare, but it’s busting budgets in many states that elected to do so. Louisiana spent $6 billion, or 18.6 percent of the state budget, on Medicaid in 2008. It’s now spending $12.4 billion on Medicaid, representing 36 percent of the budget; a quarter of its residents are on Medicaid.
Across the country, Medicaid accounts for roughly $1 of every $3 that states spend.
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