Opinion Trending Now

ON NYPOST.COM

Team Biden’s extending the COVID 120,729

emergency again — to expand the

welfare state
By Dr. Joel Zinberg November 13, 2022 7:22pm Updated

Watch Donald Trump give a toast and

dance at Tiffany Trump’s wedding

83,173

Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric Trump share

pics from Tiffany's Mar-a-Lago
wedding

78,044

Biden will extend the COVID-19 public-health emergency through at least April 11, 2023.
AP Inside Tiffany Trump and Michael
Boulos' luxe Mar-a-Lago wedding
It’sofficial. Despite President Joe Biden’s recent admission
More On: that the pandemic is over, his team will extend the COVID-19 58,238
medicaid public-health emergency through at least April 11, 2023. This
has nothing to do with any emergency — it is to allow the
Team Biden’s latest welfare
expansion: Medicaid payments administration to extend pandemic-era policies that expand
for housing, food, even furniture the welfare state.

Biden’s Medicaid plans will send Biden — in one of his unguarded, truth-telling gaffes — was
the program completely off the correct: The pandemic emergency phase is over. New
rails Gene Simmons: ‘I’m not ready’ for
COVID cases began to decline in late July and have been daughter Sophie to marry ‘potential
relatively stable over the past month; new COVID husband’
Hochul stands by Medicaid
contractor tied to campaign hospitalizations have been steadily falling since late July; the
donations that feds say cost percentage of emergency-department visitors diagnosed with
taxpayers up to $195 million
COVID hasn’t been rising; COVID death rates have been
Now on
New York’s swelling Medicaid dropping since August.
rolls are helping bankrupt
Brooklyn’s biggest hospital And vaccines and therapeutics are readily available, so
available in fact that millions of doses are going unused .

Extending the emergency is aimed at keeping as many people as possible dependent on Medicaid — the
federal-state health program that covers more than 1 in 4 Americans — even though large and growing
numbers of beneficiaries are ineligible.

Enrollment has risen to unprecedented levels, due in large part to the March 2020 Families First
Coronavirus Response Act’s continuous-coverage requirement, which prohibits state Medicaid agencies Kylie Jenner leaves little to the
from disenrolling ineligible beneficiaries while the public-health emergency lasts. imagination in sexy backless dress

King Charles marks first

Remembrance Day since Queen
Elizabeth II’s death

Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric Trump share

pics from Tiffany’s Mar-a-Lago
wedding

See All

Video
NYC janitor allegedly caught on video
dumping household trash at his
workplace

COVID cases, death and hospitalizations have been down in recent weeks.
REUTERS

After declining in the two years before the pandemic, Medicaid enrollment grew by an estimated 19 million
(more than 26%) between February 2020 and July 2022 because states can no longer assess and
remove ineligible enrollees.

Under normal circumstances, states periodically redetermine Medicaid recipients’ eligibility to account for
changed circumstances such as new employment, altered family status and increased income. The
promise of a 6.2% temporary increase in the federal government’s share of total Medicaid costs enticed
states into forgoing this process. As a result, they face the prospect of weeding out more than three years
of ineligible beneficiaries.

The Urban Institute predicted nearly 16 million people could be cut

from Medicaid rolls if the emergency ended after 2022’s third quarter.
But Team Biden just confirmed it will renew the 90-day extension that
see also
expires in January, so the number will undoubtedly be higher.

Groups like Families USA (a long-time advocate of Medicaid

expansion) and nursing-home trade associations like the American
Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living
(whose 14,000 members derive huge revenue from Medicaid)
pressured the administration to extend the emergency, ostensibly so ‘Masks reduce racism’
states can prepare for the unprecedentedly large Medicaid eligibility
study is latest sign US
medical establishment is
redeterminations that will start once it’s over. These groups also raised insanely, perilously woke
the specter that some people will lose health-insurance coverage.

But states have long been aware of the impending problem — they’ve
been expressing concern for more than a year about the redetermination backlog that grows with each
emergency extension.

States will have ample time to complete the process: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
has advised them they’ll have 14 months after the emergency ends to process ineligible recipients, with
no consequence for taking longer. And the CMS guidance includes extensive procedural protections for
enrollees.

Many people will be bumped from Medicaid if Biden’s emergency ends.

AP

Some people will undoubtedly lose Medicaid coverage, but that is the point of making eligibility
determinations — to ensure those receiving public benefits are actually eligible for them. Nearly all those
who lose Medicaid will be able to obtain alternative coverage through the heavily subsidized ObamaCare
marketplace or employer plans, coverage that is far superior to what Medicaid provides.

The administration prefers keeping people on a government-run program. It’s extending the public-health
emergency, though even the president knows it is clearly over, to expand Medicaid to cover those who
aren’t even eligible.

8 What do you think? Post a comment.

This is the same administration that’s expanding government health programs like Medicaid and Medicare
to cover nonmedical, “health-related social needs” such as food and housing. This stealth expansion of
the welfare state has got to stop.

Joel Zinberg is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and director of the Paragon Health
Institute’s Public Health and American Well-Being Initiative.

Filed under Coronavirus joe biden medicaid welfare 11/13/22

Read Next Aaron Carter's memoir delayed 'out of respect' for his fam...

More Stories
Page Six NYPost

Watch Donald Trump give a toast and dance at Race for the House remains up for grabs — here's
Tiffany Trump’s wedding where it stands

Sections & Features Post Sports+ Newsletters & Feeds Help/Support Apps

News Metro Subscribe Email Newsletters About New York Post iPhone App
Sports Sports Betting Articles RSS Feeds Customer Service iPad App
Business Opinion Manage NY Post Official Store App FAQ & Help Android Phone
Entertainment Fashion & Beauty Community Guidelines Android Tablet
Home Delivery
Shopping Lifestyle
Contact Us Advertise
Real Estate Media Subscribe
Tech Health Manage Subscription Tips Self Service
Travel Astrology Newsroom Media Kit
Video Photos Delivery Help Letters to the Editor Contact
Visual Stories Alexa Reprints
Covers Horoscopes Careers
Sports Odds Podcasts
Columnists Classifieds

© 2022 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved Terms of Use Membership Terms Privacy Notice Your Ad Choices Sitemap Your California Privacy Rights