Medicaid Traps People In Poverty — Congress Must Reform It Now

Medicaid is a poverty trap that needs to be reformed, Star Parker said on Straight Arrow News. Do Republicans have the will to do it?

Medicaid is a “vastly expanded and increasingly expensive” program that must be trimmed if the government wants to cut money from the federal budget.

“Despite warnings from fiscally responsible people that Congress could not long sustain a 90 percent federal match for states that expanded their Medicaid programs to include many able-bodied people without children,” Star said, “many governors and state legislators succumbed to the political pressure, and they massively expanded their Medicaid programs. And we told them then that this would not work over time. Obamacare was not good for the country.”

Members of Congress from such states don’t want Medicaid costs to be restrained, and they don’t want states taking on more responsibility for restraining costs.

Star, who founded The Center of Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), spoke about the policy tome CURE published, The State of Black Progress. In an essay, Dr. Sally Pipes, president of Pacific Research Institute, wrote that Obamacare funneled many poor people out of private insurance and into Medicaid, which was already a disaster before expansion.

Star said that “once on Medicaid, people face a disincentive to earn enough money to escape from it because of the high marginal tax rate.”

Another essay contributor to The State of Black Progress, Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, said that the Medicaid program has obstructed black advancement.

We can’t continue this way. Watch the full segment below or at Straight Arrow News.