This can’t be right.
The Census Bureau claims that the “official poverty rate” is 11.6 percent. But the number of Americans on Medicaid is nearly 99 million — out of a total population of 333 million. Everyone knows that Medicaid is the federal-state healthcare program for “the poor.” So how can the share of U.S. residents living “in poverty” be 11.6 percent and 29.7 percent at the same time?
The answer is simple: Medicaid’s for everyone now.
Well, not quite. But decade after decade, eligibility was expanded so “generously,” Medicaid has a shot at the title of State Governments’ Biggest Burden. In the pre-Rona calendar year of 2019, expenditures, including an associated subsidy, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, were $645.7 billion. (Don’t ask what was spent in 2020, 2021, and 2022. You really don’t want to know.) That’s $5,022 for every household in the nation.
Senior citizens bear their share of blame for the tab. As the chart below reveals, while they’re 8 percent of enrollment, they grab 15 percent of spending.
Even AARP admits that 43 percent “of U.S. long-term care costs in 2019” were covered by Medicaid. (Want to get in on the action? There’s an army of specialists eager to advise families how to “spend down” grandma’s assets so she qualifies for a taxpayer-provided nursing home.)
Many of the aged needing daily assistance are in their condition because they were foolhardy back when they could have secured spryness and sharpness in the distant future. Sadly, oodles of the non-elderly are ahead of the game, destroying their bodies far in advance of retirement. (How else does a country see its year-over-year life expectancy drop five times in a single decade?)
Puffing on cigs or weed, guzzling booze, couch-potatoing, getting lousy sleep, overeating, failing to maintain social connections — they’re not bad-luck bolts out of the blue. They’re choices. And when it comes to health, Americans are as responsible as a frat pledge at his first kegger.
According to the National Health Council, over “75% of all health care costs are due to chronic conditions.” Surprisingly, the trade association for Anthony Fauci and his minions concedes that chronic diseases are “associated with unhealthy and risky behaviors,” and thus, “are often entirely preventable.” Joe Biden’ Department of Health & Human Services agrees: “By making healthy choices, you can reduce your likelihood of getting a chronic disease and improve your quality of life.”
Wise words. Trouble is, no one’s listening. A few years into the new century, epidemiologist Matthew J. Reeves looked at America’s commitment to four health habits: regular exercise, eschewing cigarettes, consuming fruits and vegetables daily, and maintaining a respectable body mass index.
The portion of the population that practiced all four behaviors? Three percent. Reeves called his findings “pretty remarkable,” noting that he wasn’t “asking anyone to climb Mount Everest here.”
Surely Medicaid beneficiaries are the exceptions? They derive “free,” or at least heavily funded, healthcare from tax revenue. So clean livin’ is the norm for them.
In 2019, the share of adult Medicaiders who self-reported as overweight or obese was 66 percent — more than 38 percent greater than the result of a Gallup poll of all adult Americans. For cigarettes, the impudence was worse. Twenty-six percent smoked. That’s twice the nation’s rate.
If you’re going to make your countrymen pay your healthcare bills, can you at least have the decency to eat smart, exercise, and kick the habit? No “leader” in D.C. or a state capital dares to ask the question. Keep supplying those “free” blood-pressure meds, knee surgeries, oxygen tanks, and Hoverounds, and reelection is close to a certainty.
Maybe not. Trends that can’t go on forever don’t, and kudos to the Foundation for Government Accountability’s new public-education campaign. The organization is calling attention to the shameful fact that Medicaid’s beneficiary list is about to crest 100 million. FGA’s “countdown clock” estimates that the malignant mark will be set sometime in mid-March. What’s getting us over the top?
The sharp rise in enrollment is largely due to the federal government’s continued extension of the COVID-19 public health emergency which locks states in “Medicaid Handcuffs.” While the emergency is in effect, states receive extra Medicaid funding on the condition that everyone enrolled remains locked into the program. This has led to an additional 24 million enrollees, more than 21 million of whom would previously not have qualified because they earn too much money or are otherwise ineligible.
Some numbers are hard to ignore. For the catastrophe that is Medicaid, let’s hope 100 million is one of them.
So, like the woeful, crumbling, on its last legs NHS over here, but only for SOME people.
This article makes me SICK!! Where is that Medicaid number!!