When a government entity audits and snips tax-funded healthcare plans, recipients accustomed to the aid often protest. Inspired by seemingly compassionate legislators, they assume people curbing entitlement programs act due to a lack of concern for their well-being.
However, plaintive Illinois lawmakers just inadvertently illustrated exactly why their tax inflow needs to be throttled. Although they seized the opportunity to blame the federal government’s proposed Medicaid cuts for their state’s healthcare worries, a recent investigation revealed the state consistently mismanaged funds entrusted to it. Their recklessness and lack of transparency robbed patients, and taxpayers in the Prairie State and across the country should take note and insist on accountability.
The Claims
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and some Illinois Congress members assert that 770,000 Illinoisans could lose their Medicaid benefits due to ongoing federal budget cuts under the Trump administration.
Elizabeth Whitehorn, director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, immediately expressed fear that residents would lose “even the most basic health care.” Pritzker and Congresswoman Delia Ramirez both lamented that “people will die.” Ramiz added, “Safety net hospitals are going to shut down.”
The Big Picture
Most importantly, it is both lazy and inaccurate to allege that a lack of Medicaid in general translates to a quantifiable corresponding drop in care. After 60 years of the program, with government control over health care continually expanding since then, it is impossible to know what the landscape would look like without it.
What is known? Taxpayers—not the government—pay $880 billion annually into Medicaid. By some estimates, the federal government alone wastes an average of $247 billion per year, and state waste is difficult to even estimate. Some people would prefer to keep their tax dollars and use them to manage their own care, rather than pay into a system where money disappears into the ether. But they are not given the option, and no comparison is now possible.
The Illinois Fiasco
Illinois legislators are particularly misleading in their arguments, because almost simultaneously with their demand for continued Medicaid funding, a state audit found they had grossly mismanaged what they had been receiving.
Pritzker and his backers spent $1.6 billion in taxes on healthcare programs for illegal immigrants over the past five years, despite existing money shortfalls. That was twice their expected budget for this endeavor. (Interestingly, the governor just demanded $1.88 billion in federal funds that are currently frozen.)
However, they neglected to even seek federal reimbursement for state tax funds when they were eligible for them. Because of this oversight, Illinois residents shouldered fees that should legally have been spread across the nation.
For example, 6,000 individuals who were listed as “undocumented” did indeed have Social Security numbers, meaning they could possibly have been eligible for federal reimbursement. Almost 400 residents qualified due to being in the country for the required five years.
Furthermore, almost 700 individuals under the age of 65 somehow ended up on the senior healthcare plan.
The Future
Illinois lawmakers have consistently proven their constituents should not trust them to oversee healthcare funding. Rather than joining legislators in asking for money, residents need to demand they be allowed to keep what is rightfully theirs so they can manage it properly.
Health care is not going to improve until voters stop believing the half-truths and untruths their officials sell them. The Illinois government is a prime example of the real problem.