Do you have any thoughts about millionaires qualifying for Medicaid? Is this something you'd be interested in reforming?
I have a lot of thoughts! But most of them are “I’m not convinced that’s a problem that exists” or “even if it is a problem that exists, we’ve got many more pressing issues in health reform.”
First, If you search “millionaires qualify medicaid” the first few results include dailysignal and infowars, one of which is run by the Heritage Foundation (conservative think tank) and the other is run by Alex Jones (batshit crazy motherfucker, nazi)
If these parties are concerned about it, chances are I am not. In fact, I would question exactly how much of a problem it is in the first place, based solely on those being the sources.
Second, Yes, it’s true that if you have non-liquid assets—such as cars, houses, etc.—but your income is low, you theoretically could qualify for Medicaid. (This is easier if you are a child, elderly, pregnant, or disabled, which are the groups Medicaid was created to serve.) Still, if Bob is a millionaire, he’s got to be really fucking stupid to go with Medicaid, which is basement-level insurance that covers an extremely limited number of things, with a hell of a lot of paperwork and restrictions.
Bob should sell one of his cars and buy individual health insurance like everybody else who doesn’t get employer-sponsored coverage.
Third, at the end of the day, tightening Medicaid restrictions doesn’t hurt the theoretical millionaires who have found a way to game the system. (That’s what millionaires do; tax shelters and indemnification clauses didn’t spring up naturally.) Making it harder to apply or qualify for Medicaid hurts people who can’t afford financial planners or lawyers or the endless rounds of administrative appeals. It burdens states with over-regulating something that is already very heavily regulated, and doesn’t actual solve any of the genuine issues facing healthcare today.
Fourth and finally, in a perfect world, everybody could have equitable health insurance, regardless of income level or net worth. I’m more interested in working towards that, rather than trying to narrow the gate for access to Medicaid for a tenth of a sliver of the population.
