Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Democrats in Congress Won’t Let Andrew Cuomo Fight Medicaid Fraud
Over the past several weeks, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has taken several shots at Sen. Chuck Schumer, his fellow New York Democrat, about the coronavirus “stimulus” bills passed by Congress. Cuomo has repeatedly attacked Schumer for not looking out for their home state’s interests, calling the most recent measure, which cost more than $2 trillion, “terrible” for the Empire State.
The intraparty feuding seems all the more noteworthy for one reason Cuomo found the “stimulus” terrible: It precludes New York from taking steps to right-size its Medicaid program. That senior Democrats in Congress tied the hands of a governor from their own party as he works to enact reforms, and combat fraud, in the costly program speaks to how leftists will fight tooth-and-nail to maintain every facet of the welfare state.
New York’s Medicaid Mess
Even prior to the coronavirus pandemic, New York’s state Medicaid program faced major difficulties. In fiscal year 2018, New York’s Medicaid program spent nearly as much ($74.8 billion) as California’s ($83.9 billion), even though California has more than twice the population (39.5 million vs. 19.5 million for New York).
Some of New York’s high Medicaid spending stems from rampant waste and fraud. A 2005 in-depth investigation by The New York Times quoted a former investigator as saying that 10 percent of all Medicaid spending constituted outright fraud, with another 20-30 percent representing “unnecessary spending that might not be criminal.”
New York’s Medicaid program also spends disproportionate sums on institutional care for individuals with disabilities. The state spends more than twice as much on nursing home care ($5.5 billion) as California ($2.5 billion), despite having less than half the population. New York also exceeds California’s spending on intermediate care facilities for the intellectually disabled.
Smart reforms to Medicaid would attempt to keep individuals in their own homes wherever possible. Paying for home and community-based services would save taxpayers money. More importantly, it would also treat patients in the location the vast majority of patients prefer: Their own homes. Changes to move in this direction, coupled with efforts to fight waste and fraud, would bring long-overdue reform to Medicaid in New York.
Cuomo Tried to Fix the Problem
Prior to the pandemic, New York faced a $6 billion budget shortfall that Cuomo blamed (correctly) on the Medicaid mess. He asked a commission to recommend reforms, and the commission came back with a series of proposals that would save more than $1.6 billion in state dollars during the coming fiscal year, and additional sums thereafter. (Because the federal government provides at least a 50 percent Medicaid match to New York, the changes would save federal taxpayers at least as much as they would save state taxpayers.)
While the recommendations do include across-the-board reductions in provider payment levels, changes to long-term care represent the largest amount of savings ($715 million of the $1.65 billion total). The package includes a focus on home- and community-based services, tightens restrictions on households who attempt to hide assets to have Medicaid cover their long-term care costs, and includes reforms to program integrity as well.
Did Schumer Stop Reform?
As New York’s Democrat governor proposed a Medicaid reform package, what did New York’s senior senator do? By one account he worked to ensure that his fellow Democrat could not enact the needed changes.
As I previously noted, the second “stimulus” bill included a Medicaid bailout for states, coupled with maintenance of effort provisions. These provisions prohibit states from making any changes to eligibility or benefits in exchange for the 6.2 percent increase in the federal Medicaid match (which will last for the duration of the coronavirus public health emergency). States that increase cost-sharing, change benefits, impose premiums—pretty much any change to the Medicaid benefit package, other than arbitrary reductions in provider payments—lose eligibility for the increased federal match.
Cuomo railed against these restrictions: “Why would the federal government say, ‘I’m going to trample the state’s right to redesign its Medicaid program, that it runs—that saves money?’…I don’t even know what the political interest is they’re trying to protect.”
The governor appeared to win the argument—at first. Section 3720 of a draft version of the third “stimulus” bill (beginning at page 394 here) would have amended the second “stimulus” bill to allow New York to go ahead with its reforms, while still receiving the 6.2 percent increase in the federal Medicaid match.
But Section 3720 of the version that made it into law (page 147 here) stripped out the original language that allowed New York to proceed with its Medicaid changes. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) claims Schumer got the language removed, presumably because he opposes Cuomo’s reform package:
Stop Defending Fraudsters
Who exactly nixed the language helping New York, and why, may remain a mystery. But it seems highly unlikely that Senate Republicans would have insisted on its removal. Most conservatives support states’ Medicaid reform proposals, and fought maintenance of effort requirements included in the 2009 “stimulus” and Obamacare that thwarted state flexibility. The objection that led to the New York provision’s removal almost certainly came from the Democrat side of the aisle.
As to why, consider this quote from Politico: “Critics argue…that even if there is some sense in targeting waste and fraud, it also makes sense to raise taxes on the wealthy to support a program that poor New Yorkers rely on.”
Yes, by all means let’s raise taxes during the midst of an economic cataclysm. If we crack down on fraud too much, the fraudsters might go out of business—and they need to eat just like the rest of us!
It’s exactly this kind of mentality that left the United States with $23 trillion in debt (and rising). Cuomo rightly called out the members of his own party for their socialistic games, because the American people deserve better than the left’s welfare-industrial complex.
This post was originally published at The Federalist.
