Work requirements for Medicaid? Boring; here's something more impactful

Let's actually help people on Medicaid by breaking the program's main addiction

About 25 years ago, I was asked to sit on a panel during a meeting of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, back when the organization wasn’t controlled by big businesses. I don’t remember what the panel was about but I do remember a lobbyist bending my ear for a few minutes.

“You should talk about the need to address Medicaid spending,” she said, to which I agreed. I was just a young state government reporter, and to be honest, I didn’t fully understand Medicaid, the state-federal medical welfare program for the poor and disabled. But I did understand the conversations around the issue. The state of Idaho’s spending in this category was just north of $600 million, of which $171 million came from the state government, the rest coming from Washington, D.C. The state had just addressed a $26 million shortfall. Medical welfare spending was already on the rise, and the forecast to contain costs wasn’t that great. Something needed to be done, and quickly.