Witness the moral and fiscal confusion of New York’s welfare-obsessed leaders.
The state’s Medicaid program is billions of dollars in the red.
Gov. Hochul announced a plan last month to cut $1.2 billion in Medicaid funding, which she’ll finalize Thursday.
Yet she’s also expanding Medicaid for children whose parents make too much money.
She’s making a middle-class entitlement New York doesn’t need and can’t afford.
Here’s the backstory.
Hochul’s administration announced plans in January to apply for a federal Medicaid waiver for “continuous eligibility” for children ages 6 and under.
Despite the name, this policy means keeping ineligible people on the dole, including families making well over six figures.
It’s a blatant attempt to give precious taxpayer resources to people who can — and should — pay for their own health insurance.
Medicaid already covers most New York births, and in some areas — like The Bronx — nearly 80% of newborns are enrolled in Medicaid at birth.
Those children remain eligible for Medicaid until their parents earn more than four times the poverty line.
That’s a six-figure income for a family of three.
Amazingly, Hochul thinks this generous system isn’t generous enough.
Under her proposal for “continuous eligibility,” Medicaid never goes away, regardless of how much the family increases its income or whether it has access to private coverage through work.
Those taxpayer-funded benefits would continue until at least age 6.
Taxpayers, get ready to get socked — covering more people for more years will cost huge sums of money.
But New York doesn’t have any change to spare, as Hochul admitted in her annual budget address last month.
If the state is losing so much money, why should it spend more on people who can afford their own coverage?
Taxpayer support is supposed to go toward the truly needy and no one else.
If Hochul isn’t stopped, the fiscal pain will only get worse.
This isn’t the first time New York has tried “continuous eligibility.”
This foolish policy was in effect from 2020 until early last year, as part of the federal government’s pandemic response.
New York was barred from removing ineligible people from Medicaid, and sure enough, people flocked to the taxpayer trough.
All told, New York’s Medicaid program grew by nearly 2 million people.
Ineligible people caused at least 75% of that growth — and they weren’t cheap.
I estimate New York spent more than $15 billion covering ineligible enrollees last year alone.
This explosion in wasteful spending was far bigger than anyone anticipated.
Why will things be any different this time?
If Hochul gets her way, New York will spend more money on more middle-class and upper-class children.
That inevitably means less money for low-income people who actually depend on Medicaid.
In other words, more cuts are coming — and they’ll be much bigger, too.
The Legislature seems ready to go along with this madness, but lawmakers should instead set the governor straight.
To start, they should block any attempt to expand welfare for families who don’t need it.
Then they should save taxpayer money by helping people on Medicaid find work.
At least 4 million of New York’s Medicaid recipients are able-bodied adults.
They can and should work, but most are out of a job on the taxpayer dime.
It’s long past time to help them find self-sufficiency instead of keeping them trapped in dependency.
The alternative is to let Gov. Hochul start a middle-class entitlement — a horrible idea even if New York had the money.
Jonathan Ingram is the Foundation for Government Accountability’s vice president of policy and research.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
