Helping you consider differing viewpoints. Before it’s illegal.
Article 1:
ACA Medicaid Expansion Helped Make This Doctor a Billionaire, Tom Metcalf and Zachary Tracer, ThinkAdvisor, August 06, 2018
Clay’s summary: Capitalism at its finest, amiright? I mean, this is the way its supposed to work, yeah?
Key Passage from the Article
Catering to Detroit and Chicago’s poor has made the Cottons rich. David Cotton and his family spent two decades building Meridian Health Plans into the biggest private provider of Medicaid benefits in Michigan and Illinois. It serves about 1.1 million members, with more than $4.3 billion of revenue forecast for 2018.
Now they’re cashing out. WellCare Health Plans Inc. announced in May that it’s buying Meridian for $2.5 billion, a deal that includes two state insurance businesses and a pharmacy benefits manager.
Cotton, 67, his wife Shery, and their three sons own the entire company, according to filings. The sale is expected to be completed by year-end and would leave the family with about $2 billion after taxes, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That puts them in the same wealth stratosphere as Detroit’s Dan Gilbert, owner of Quicken Loans, and Chicago’s Penny Pritzker, the Hyatt Hotels heiress.
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Article 2:
Arkansas’ Medicaid Spending Drops by $22M, AP, August 6th, 2018
Clay’s summary: First. Time. Ever.
Key Passage from the Article
The decrease came despite slightly higher spending on Arkansas Works, the state’s expanded Medicaid program, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. Arkansas Works spending rose to $1.91 billion, a less than 1 percent increase. That was offset by a $31 million decrease in spending on the traditional Medicaid program, which covers primarily low-income families and low-income people who are elderly or disabled. The state Department of Human Services said spending on both parts of the Medicaid program fell by 0.3 percent, to $7.1 billion.
Article 3:
Clay’s summary: This ACA rule was as slimy as it gets. Should make any Dems embarrassed and want to go take a shower.
Key Passage from the Article
A scheme by state governments that costs sick, elderly, and disabled Americans hundreds of millions of dollars each year appears to be on thin ice, thanks to the Trump administration taking action. In July, the Department of Health and Human Services published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that, if enacted, would prohibit states from diverting money from the Medicaid program and sending it to public-sector unions. This practice, known commonly as dues-skimming, is allowed in 11 states where governors and legislatures have wrongly classified relatives and friends who provide in-home care to their needy loved ones as public employees simply because they receive money from the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program to offset the cost of care. Each year, these caregivers lose an estimated $150 million to unions that skim off the top of their loved ones’ benefits, often without their knowledge.