This is exactly on point.
@mille125
If $14 billion in Medicaid fraud doesn’t piss you off, you’re in on the grift.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐀𝐛𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐜
While Democrats perform their ritualistic theater about Republicans “kicking millions off Medicaid,” the government just casually admitted to running what amounts to a $14 billion annual ghost town:
• 2.8 million Americans are double-dipping on taxpayer-funded health plans
• $14 billion flows annually to phantom patients, people who moved to Florida, died, or exist only in the fevered dreams of hospital billing departments
• Insurers cash checks for members who haven’t seen a doctor since Obama’s first term
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞
This isn’t bureaucratic bumbling, it’s the system working exactly as designed. Like a Rory Sutherland thought experiment gone horribly wrong, we’ve created perverse incentives that reward failure:
• Biden’s team banned states from checking eligibility more than once yearly (because apparently, people’s circumstances never change)
• ObamaCare exchanges operate in blissful ignorance of Medicaid rolls, like two drunk accountants at separate bars
• “Nonprofit” hospital systems—those charitable bastions of community health—are getting rich off invisible patients
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞
Here’s where human psychology gets delicious: The GOP’s modest proposal to verify eligibility twice a year and use existing address data has triggered a meltdown that would make a toddler proud.
Hospital executives and insurance lobbyists are shrieking like their cocaine has been cut with actual medicine.
Why?
𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢 $14 𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐢𝐛𝐛𝐢 𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬: 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲
This is the part nobody mentions at Georgetown dinner parties: American healthcare isn’t broken, it’s a perfectly calibrated wealth extraction machine.
Every phantom dollar flowing to ghost patients is a dollar not treating real humans with actual medical needs.
We’ve built a system where the incentive is to not verify eligibility,
not coordinate care,
and definitely not ask too many questions about where the money goes.
It’s genius, really.
Bureaucratic theater that makes everyone look compassionate while the meter keeps running.