The recent “discovery” within President Obama’s health care law that up to three million middle-class Americans will qualify for Medicaid in 2014 serves as further embarrassment for his administration’s plan.
However, skepticism has risen over whether this was truly an unexpected “glitch.”
As reported by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the Associated Press, administration officials originally supported the change in the system, claiming it was “not a loophole but the result of a well-meaning effort. Instead of a hodgepodge, there would be one national policy.” Yet, after receiving further scrutiny on the expansion of eligibility requirements, the “well-meaning effort” is now being recognized as an issue that needs to be addressed.
The “issue” that would allow a service intended to aid the neediest of Americans to be utilized by those earning up to 138 percent of poverty, is of obvious concern to American taxpayers. Expanded Medicaid eligibility will only further increase the price of health care for the federal government when spending has already been obscene, and the cost of the health care law has already exceeded initial projections.
The federal cost of the new plan was originally estimated to reach up to $674 billion dollars. However, the “glitch” has created further questioning: Will there be an additional increase in cost with three million extra Americans on Medicaid, or was this expansion in eligibility requirements already considered in earlier cost-analysis of the law?
The Congressional Budget Office claimed, in a statement to the House Budget Committee, that the “short answer” is “yes,” the change was taken into account.
However, if that is the case, then a report from the Daily Caller asked some other significant questions:
Where did they get the information on how to make their analysis, and did it come from the people who wrote the law? If this was an intentionally-added provision, it would appear to be part of a concerted effort to get millions of middle-class Americans on the government Medicaid dole. If it wasn’t intentional…are Democrats willing to repeal that part of the law?
With all of this uncertainty, one can only wonder…what other “glitches” exist hidden in the health care law that will create further costs for American taxpayers?
Apparently when Nancy Pelosi stated, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,” federal officials were not quite sure themselves.
