Minnesota’s Medicaid Disaster is a Warning Pennsylvania Must Heed

Originally published by PennLive.

Minnesota’s recent Medicaid scandal—where dozens of individuals defrauded taxpayers of at least $9 billion—is a debacle that should serve as a warning to Pennsylvania. Signs of comparable abuse in our very own commonwealth suggest the time for reform is now.

Medicaid is the nation’s—and Pennsylvania’s—largest welfare program. Medicaid alone consumes roughly one-third of the commonwealth’s budget. Given what has happened in Minnesota, taxpayers deserve to know if Pennsylvania is responsibly managing the program and their hard-earned tax dollars.

Unfortunately, Medicaid is growing at a pace that defies fiscal reality. Between 2018 and 2025, Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services (DHS)—the state agency responsible for managing the program—budget grew 58 percent. During that same time, Pennsylvania’s population, according to census data, grew by only 2 percent. What’s more, projections suggest that Pennsylvania’s Medicaid long-term living expenditures will grow about twice as fast as state revenue over the next five years.

Read more at PennLive.