Health Chief Blasts States on Medicaid

[corksean]

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush's new health secretary accused some states on Tuesday of mismanaging their Medicaid programs and cheating the federal government and taxpayers of as much as $40 billion over a decade.

``We need to have a very uncomfortable but, frankly, necessary conversation with our funding partners, the states,'' said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. ``State officials have resorted to what I would refer to as a variety of loopholes and in some cases accounting gimmicks that shift the cost that they claim to pay to the taxpayers of other states.''

He said that if the federal government doesn't persuade states to close those loopholes, they will shift as much as $40 billion in what officials describe as a shell game in which the federal government repays states for supposedly spent money.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4771869,00.html

[rodeodance]

1. so this new health guy is blaming the states for FEDeral loopholes!!

[MisterP]

2. three-step process:

1: "Devolve" responsibilities from the "Fed'rul Gub'mint" to states 'coz they're SO much more efficient (see: "welfare 'reform'")
2: Get angry when they lose $, or pretend they did.
3: Slash money for it.

[CAG]

4. Amen

I was about to type the same exact thing before I saw your response. However, you forgot #4; after slashing money for the program, then talk about how terrible those "worthless bureaucrats" do their jobs.

However, seriously, I thought given these responsibilities to the states were supposedly what the repubs want?

Remember Newts idea about handing over welfare to states? Talk about a race to the bottom; every state would try to continually squeeze the poor out of their states by drying any benefits dry, then use the money for worthless pork. It was so obvious thats what he meant to really do, it was difficult for him to hide it.

[mom cat]

3. And the Pentagon can't account for TRILLIONS of dollars!