Arkansas is 'cracking down' where Biden admin 'failed to step up': Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, R., discusses legislation addressing the fentanyl crisis, education reform, social media access for minors, and China's expanding influence.
My wife and I never thought it would be so difficult to get medications and appointments for our special-needs son. He has severe autism and epilepsy, requiring daily doses and regular visits to the doctor’s office. Since he’s disabled, he qualifies for Medicaid, which we’ve found is the only way to get everything he needs. But appointments usually take months to schedule and prescriptions are often delayed.
A few days ago, one of his prescriptions took so long to approve, he had to go on a different drug for 24 hours. Few things are more dangerous for someone like him. We watched him like a hawk to make sure nothing went wrong. Fortunately, his doctors, nurses, and pharmacists fought to get him the drugs he needed.
The fight wasn’t always this difficult. Just three years ago, medications were approved almost instantly, and we could schedule appointments a few weeks in advance.
Then, at the start of the pandemic, Washington, D.C. forced one of the most foolish policies imaginable on Arkansas and every state. It bribed states with federal money to keep people on Medicaid even after they are no longer eligible. They’re using the precious resources that are supposed to go to the truly needy.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS RIPS BIDEN'S CAMPAIGN LAUNCH VIDEO: 'LACK OF ENERGY AND ENTHUSIASM'
Today, by the state’s estimate, a staggering 586,998 Arkansans are on Medicaid who shouldn’t be. That’s more than a sixth of the state’s population—and more than half of Arkansas’s total Medicaid recipients.
They signed up for the program after losing jobs or hours at the height of the pandemic, yet now they’re back in the workforce or fully employed. They make too much to keep getting taxpayer-funded health care, yet every day they do, they make it more difficult for my son to get the treatments he needs. He’s being pushed back in line by people who should be in a different line altogether.
FILE – Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks after taking the oath of the office on the steps of the Arkansas Capitol Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, in Little Rock, Ark. (The Associated Press)
Thankfully, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders refuses to let this injustice stand. As of April 1, states are finally free to begin removing ineligible individuals from Medicaid, and Gov. Sanders is doing so as quickly as possible. Her administration’s stated goal is to finish the process no later than September. No state is moving faster to restore Medicaid to its intended beneficiaries like my son.
Why are other states continuing to neglect people like him? The organization I work for has filed freedom-of-information requests with every state agency overseeing Medicaid. As of March, we estimate that least 21 million recipients are ineligible, out of a total Medicaid population of more than 100 million—a historic high that hurts truly low-income people on the program.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER
Yet only four other states have even started the process of removing ineligibles, and almost all the rest will wait to start until summer or fall. All but seven won’t fully restore sanity to Medicaid until mid-2024. That’s another 12 to 14 months during which people who need Medicaid will find it more difficult to access care.
These states are failing a basic test of compassion and competence. The biggest reason is that the Biden administration wants as many people on Medicaid as possible. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has repeatedly told states not to disenroll ineligible people too quickly, with an implicit threat that quick action could elicit a federal response.
FILE – President Biden visits IBM to announce $20B investment in New York's Hudson Valley. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
The mainstream media has piled on—see a recent Politico story accusing Arkansas of "disruption" and letting people "fall through the cracks." It’s part of the larger liberal narrative that any rollback of a government program is heartless, even when people like my son are already at risk from a welfare state gone wild.
It appears that the Biden administration has ulterior motives. Even as it urges states to take their time fixing Medicaid, it’s working on a mandate that would break the program permanently. CMS has proposed a rule that would block states from using the most effective means of determining who’s eligible, like in-person interviews and requests on changes in employment. The Biden administration transparently wants to keep as many people on Medicaid as possible—indefinitely.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
That means fewer resources and more struggles for people with severe conditions and nowhere else to turn, like my son. If we lived in another state, his health would be at much greater risk, but thankfully, we live in Arkansas.
Hopefully, more governors will follow Gov. Sanders’s lead and side with the people for whom Medicaid was created. No one should have to endure what my family has over the past few years.