In America's endless health-care debate, Medicaid serves as a Rorschach Test for the Left and Right. Critics of government intervention in medical care such as Avik Roy, president of Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, contend that America's “low cost” insurer fails patients at astronomical costs. Allowing Medicaid to continue to expand as-is just doubles-down the federal government's role in a colossal blunder.
To supporters of the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid serves as an effective insurer for poor and near-poor Americans, shielding them from the medical misfortunes of life. Supposedly, they've got the data on their side. Headlines proclaim that, “Medicaid is an effective, efficient program.” But at an annual price tag of nearly $600 billion and burdened with a scourge of improper payments, little evidence suggests that the program improves actual access to care or health outcomes.
