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McCrory and his DHHS Dream Team misled public on Medicaid

They used the classic Republican tactic of preventing government from working and then complain about it not working.
 
Deacon923 said:
By suppressing favorable information and cherry-picking numbers to paint Medicaid in the most unfavorable light.
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Well if nothing else, it means that Roy Cooper should fit right in as governor if he dupes the populace into electing his sorry ass.
 
why even bother with this? just frame your story around the reforms you think would be beneficial. They could have said they want to reform Medicaid I'm sure people would have been open to what they wantedot change. This is what happens when a weak mayor gets elected governor
 
Is the world all of a sudden seem filled with people who have shit for brains?
 
It is one thing for politicians to try to manipulate the public but all I ask is for them to be honest with the facts, this is very damning. I wonder if this is the reason that Steckel left, her redaction were going to come out.
 
Lol this line:

"In a document that displays “track changes” that include Steckel’s electronic signature, whole paragraphs were deleted, with evidence that, for example, North Carolina’s administrative costs are lower than most states rather than 30 percent higher, as maintained by McCrory administration officials."
 
I'm sure that crack staff of twentysomethings making 80 grand a year with no healthcare experience will help guide Mrs. Wos and company straight again.
 
dot com said:
So what kind of fallout can we expect from this? Nothing?
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I think Wos eventually becomes the fall-guy (or gal, rather) for all this...but given how teflon this admin thinks they are, it's possible nothing comes of it.
 
While I agree with the OP's assertion (that Medicaid was painted in an unfavorable light), I'm not clear that undermines the fact of Medicaid's negative impact to NC's budget... and more to the point, what an expansion might mean to future fiscal health (particularly if Federal matching funds were reduced or even eliminated at some point). The article seems to assert Medicaid was over budget (for a 3 year period) somewhere between $375 million (if you include matching funds) and $1.4 billion (if you ignore matching funds). The spin evidently ignored the matching funds (an argument can be made for that, but I don't have enough data to make that argument)... but regardless, we were materially over budget.
 
beatrix said:
While I agree with the OP's assertion (that Medicaid was painted in an unfavorable light), I'm not clear that undermines the fact of Medicaid's negative impact to NC's budget... and more to the point, what an expansion might mean to future fiscal health (particularly if Federal matching funds were reduced or even eliminated at some point). The article seems to assert Medicaid was over budget (for a 3 year period) somewhere between $375 million (if you include matching funds) and $1.4 billion (if you ignore matching funds). The spin evidently ignored the matching funds (an argument can be made for that, but I don't have enough data to make that argument)... but regardless, we were materially over budget.
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The Iraq War went over budget too. A lot of things in the world miss budgets for one reason or another. The mere fact that something is over (or under) budget is meaningless without an understanding of why.

The why, in this case, was that pre-McCrory DHHS repeatedly told the legislature that they were setting unrealistic budget numbers in light of the expected usage of the system. When an eligible person applies for Medicaid they get the services, whether it was budgeted or not. Then, post-McCrory DHHS spun it to the media and legislature as evidence of waste or administrative incompetence or an out of control bureaucracy, because that serves their narrative of broken state government that needs to be privatized or defunded or whatever.
 
Republicans break government then complain that government is broken.
 
Deacon923 said:
The Iraq War went over budget too. A lot of things in the world miss budgets for one reason or another. The mere fact that something is over (or under) budget is meaningless without an understanding of why.

The why, in this case, was that pre-McCrory DHHS repeatedly told the legislature that they were setting unrealistic budget numbers in light of the expected usage of the system. When an eligible person applies for Medicaid they get the services, whether it was budgeted or not. Then, post-McCrory DHHS spun it to the media and legislature as evidence of waste or administrative incompetence or an out of control bureaucracy, because that serves their narrative of broken state government that needs to be privatized or defunded or whatever.
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While I have finance/accounting expertise, I'm not close enough to the State's budget sausage making to go deep dive on this... but generally speaking, balanced-budget requirements drive legislature budget decisions. I get what you're saying - Medicaid was $1.4 billion over budget, offset by some matching funds.. not their fault, as the entitlement (usage and supply) is driving the cost. If legislators had opted to take more from education or economic development or what-have-you and direct it to DHHS, Medicaid would have only been $1 billion or $500 million (pick a number) over budget.

The auditor said it was mismanagement (probably some level of truth there), the DHHS said they were genuis Alan Mulally-level administrators and usage drove the overage (probably some level of truth there). McCrory's group opted to push / spin the auditor's conclusion and ignore the protestations of the DHHS administrators. So far, so good.. politics as usual. But the underlying core point McCrory is trying to get to is Medicaid and Medicaid expansion is expensive.... and in a balanced budget world, choices have to be made.
 
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