Browse Heartland
-
- Health Care News
- Health Care
Best Way to End Medicaid Waste: Give Enrollees Cash – Commentary
Publication -In their paper titled “Leveraging the Medicaid Expansion,” David Hyman and Charles Silver write, “We propose that rather than adhering to Medicaid’s traditional structure, where states pay providers at unreasonably low rates for treating beneficiaries, expansion projects should be modeled on Social Security and the Earned Income Tax Credit, both of which distribute money that […] -
- Health Care News
- Health Care
How to Get $880 Billion in Savings from Medicaid Without Cutting Benefits – Commentary
Publication -Because the payment rates are so low, many doctors refuse to see Medicaid patients. Among those who do, the Medicaid patient is the last they want to see. This is one reason why newly enrolled Medicaid patients increase their visits to the emergency room by 40 percent. Parkland Hospital in Dallas (the city’s safety-net hospital) […] -
- Health Care News
- Health Care
Medicaid Overhaul Falls Short, Jeopardizing Tax Cuts
Publication -Republican lawmakers are resisting efforts to overhaul Medicaid, a program that now insures one-in-five Americans and involves billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse. House Republicans dropped their “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” on May 12, a reconciliation bill that doesn’t require the Senate’s 60 vote threshold to pass. Instead of per-capita cuts or a […] -
- Health Care News
- Health Care
Report: Medicaid Misspent $4.3 Billion in Duplicate Payments
Publication -U.S. taxpayers spent at least $4.3 billion over a three-year period covering the same Medicaid patients twice or more, The Wall Street Journal reported. Medicaid paid health insurance companies for hundreds of thousands of patients who signed up for the program in two or more separate states. This happened when a patient moved to a different state, […] -
- Health Care News
- Health Care
Supreme Court Considers State’s Selection of Medicaid Providers
Publication -The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on April 2 over whether federal law allows states free to select which medical providers they want to fund in their Medicaid programs. In Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, South Carolina defended its right to reject Medicaid vendors who provide abortions elsewhere in the nation, which the state […] -
- Health Care News
- Health Care
No Better Time Than Now for Real Medicaid Reform – Interview
Publication -Republicans are taking much political heat for trying to cut $880 billion in federal spending, with Democrats saying the GOP will cut Medicaid benefits. Gary Alexander, director of the Medicaid and Health Safety Net Initiative at the Paragon Health Institute, talked to Health Care News about how Republicans can turn this challenge into a huge […] -
- Health Care News
- Health Care
Republican Medicaid Plan: Yes to Reform, No to Benefit Cuts
Publication -Partisan rhetoric over the federal budget has intensified with Democrat politicians claiming Republicans will cut Medicaid benefits. Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker, a Democrat, argued it will be impossible for Republicans to find $880 billion in spending cuts without touching Medicaid. The House budget reconciliation bill instructs the House Energy & Commerce Committee to cut […] -
- Health Care News
- Health Care
What Should Republicans Do About Medicaid? – Commentary
Publication -Republicans are in a bind. To give substance to their new budget bill, they need to cut Medicaid spending by billions of dollars. Yet the White House and many congressional Republicans insist that they do not want to cut Medicaid benefits. Here is where the Department of Government Efficiency can come to the rescue. In mainstream […] -
- Health Care News
- Health Care
Medicaid Improper Payments Estimate: $1.1 Trillion
Publication -Medicaid issued approximately $1.1 trillion in improper payments over the past decade, double the agency’s stated amount, the Paragon Health Institute estimates. “Cracking down on improper payments is a necessary first step that could provide hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid savings for federal taxpayers,” states the March 3 policy brief based on examination […] -
Research and Commentary: Indiana Medicaid Work Requirement
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Indiana lawmakers are considering legislation that would add a work requirement for enrollees in the state’s Medicaid expansion group. SB 2 would require able-bodied, mentally fit enrollees above the federal poverty level to work an average of 20 hours per week or meet other requirements to retain eligibility for Medicaid in the Healthy Indiana Program (HIP), which expanded Medicaid coverage to them under provisions in the Affordable Care Act of 2010. -
Research and Commentary: Indiana Medicaid Eligibility Reform
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Senate Bill 2 would benefit Indiana Medicaid recipients by slowing the program’s movement toward insolvency as skyrocketing Medicaid costs threaten to devour all discretionary spending in the state. Nearly two million people in Indiana were enrolled in Medicaid at the end of 2024, in a state of just under seven million people. Indiana ran a Medicaid budget shortfall of more than $1 billion in 2023 and is still struggling to recover. The cost of Medicaid in the state increased by more than $5 billion in the last four years. Medicaid is forecast to cost Indiana taxpayers $10 billion over the next two years. -
Research and Commentary: Texas Medicaid Eligibility Reform
Publication -Research and Commentaries -Texas lawmakers are considering legislation that would prevent state Medicaid administrators from automatically renewing recipients without contacting them to make sure that they qualify for the program. Senate Bill 921 would benefit Texas Medicaid recipients by slowing the program’s movement toward insolvency. More than four million Texans are currently enrolled in Medicaid. Skyrocketing Medicaid costs threaten […] -
Research and Commentary: Texas Medicaid Expansion
Publication -Research and Commentaries -After resisting for 14 years, Texas lawmakers are considering Medicaid expansion under the proposed bills SB 637 and HB 2939. Texas is one of 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) allows states to expand Medicaid coverage to people with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, currently $40,187.50 […] -
Research and Commentary: Kansas Medicaid Expansion
Publication -Research and Commentaries -After resisting for 14 years, Kansas lawmakers are considering Medicaid expansion under the proposed Healthcare Access for Working Kansans (HAWK) Act, SB 257 and HB 2375. -
Research and Commentary: South Carolina Medicaid Expansion
Publication -Research and Commentaries -After resisting for 14 years, South Carolina lawmakers are considering Medicaid expansion under House Bill 3109. South Carolina is one of 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid. -
Research and Commentary: South Carolina Medicaid Expansion
Opinion -After resisting for 14 years, South Carolina lawmakers are considering Medicaid expansion under House Bill 3109. South Carolina is one of 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) allows states to expand Medicaid coverage to people with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, currently $40,187.50 per year for […] -
- Health Care News
- Health Care
Trump Opponents Get Ready to Pounce on Medicaid Cuts
Publication -With the Trump administration aiming for large cuts to the federal budget to eliminate waste, the federal portion of the Medicaid program is shaping up as a primary budgetary battleground. Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), chair of the House Budget Committee, has circulated a proposal for mandatory spending cuts to various programs, including Medicaid. Senate Democrats […] -
- Health Care News
- Health Care
U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Planned Parenthood Medicaid Funding
Publication -The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether states can block Medicaid eligibility from health care providers who offer abortions, such as Planned Parenthood. The high court agreed on December 18 to hear Kerr v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, in which the regional chapter of Planned Parenthood and an individual plaintiff sued South Carolina Health […] -
- Health Care News
CBO: Illegal Aliens Are Costing Medicaid Billions
Publication -Federal and state spending for medical services for illegal aliens topped $16 billion under “border czar” Kamala Harris, an increase of 124 percent compared to the same period under the Trump administration. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported those figures in an analysis requested by House Budget Committee Congressional Budget Office Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX). […] -
- Health Care News
Election Outcome Might Mean Big Changes in Medicaid
Publication -Some 81 million Americans are currently enrolled in Medicaid, a number that has expanded greatly since the 2010 enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which allowed states to expand Medicaid. -
- Health Care News
Abortion Pill Complications Can Hike Medicaid Costs
Publication -A new study that found abortion pills lead to more ER visits than birth or surgery raises questions about who is responsible for paying for the care, a coauthor of the study states. “Approximately one in 20 women sought emergency room care for abortion-related complications within 30 days of taking abortion drugs in 2015,” Ingrid […] -
- Health Care News
Texas Squares Off with CMS over Medicaid Funding
Publication -Texas and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are locking horns over what Lone Star State officials say is CMS’s double standard when it comes to states that have not participated in Medicaid expansion. Along with Florida and Missouri, Texas was targeted by CMS last year for audits and other enforcement actions as […] -
- Health Care News
Georgia Medicaid Work Program Stays Afloat, One Year Out
Publication -Georgia is the only state that requires some able-bodied adults to work to qualify for Medicaid, in a program that has reached its one-year anniversary, despite the opposition of the Biden administration. Under the Trump administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved waivers allowing states to condition Medicaid benefits for nondisabled adults […] -
- Health Care News
North Carolina Medicaid Expansion Tops 450,000 Enrollees
Publication -North Carolina has picked up 450,000 new Medicaid enrollees in the first six months since becoming the 41st state to expand Medicaid. The state’s Department of Health and Human Services reports nearly 6 percent more of the state’s population has enrolled in Medicaid since the legislature, on December 1, 2023, approved Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget, […]
What's New
Heartland Newsletters
The Heartland Institute offers free email subscriptions to all of its newsletters and monthly public policy newspapers.