Medicaid the Most Fraud-Ridden Gov't Program

By: John Semmens

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals that Medicaid is the most fraud-ridden program in the entire federal government. The report found that “in fiscal year 2020, Medicaid covered an estimated 77 million low-income and medically needy individuals at a cost of $673 billion. Improper payments of $85 billion were made.”

According to the GAO, the major factor enabling the fraud “was failure to audit state Medicaid eligibility determinations in the midst of a dramatic expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare. This has more than tripled the amount of improper spending. The growth in improper payments is directly linked to states being incentivized to game the system by improperly classifying people as expansion enrollees to receive greater federal reimbursement rates.”

This fraud inspired Sen. Bernie Sanders to argue that “this is why we need to replace our current medical services system with a single-payer plan. Right now too much decision-making authority is in the hands of doctors and patients. Patients want the best care available. Doctors are eager to accommodate this wish. Under a single-payer plan, the government would be the final arbiter of what care will be allowed to which patients.”

“Only the government is in a position to assess whether the social value of the patient is sufficiently high enough to warrant the level of care needed to restore that patient to health,” the Senator explained. “Society can afford to pay larger sums to ensure that important people like government leaders are kept in good health. Superfluous members of society will have to make do with whatever government authorities feel can be spared.”