Rand Paul

On Wednesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Greg Kelly Reports,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said that states should have to shoulder 50% of the financial burden for Medicaid and food stamps and this would give them an incentive to do more to prevent fraud.

Paul said, “I think part of the problem is this: The federal government pays for these programs, but the states sign people up. So, there’s no incentive for the states to police these programs, because, to the states, it’s free. So, right now, new people we add to Medicaid — and a lot of these programs are Medicaid — 90% of the bill’s paid at the federal government, 10% is paid for by the states. So, the states look at it as, oh, well, this is free, who cares? I don’t care whether it’s an able-bodied person. I don’t care whether they have a job. I don’t really care whatever their income is. That’s the way the states treat these, particularly blue states. So, Minnesota hasn’t cared for a long time.”

He added that “if you were to change Medicaid to 50-50 — a lot of Medicaid is 50-50, it’s split between the state and the federal government — then they have skin in the game, and, as they sign people up, they’re like, well, it costs us money also. Most of it, a big chunk of the Medicaid expansion is 90% federal government, 10% states. If you change that, make it 50-50, they would then have skin in the game, and it saves the federal government about $800 billion over ten years. So, $80 billion a year is nothing — not insignificant. But it also would affect the supervision to prevent fraud. Because if the states were paying 50%, they won’t — they will care more if they’re being ripped off. So, there are bad people that rip off people all the time, but there’s more of it if nobody’s looking and if the people signing people up have no incentive to look. So, what I’ve been advocating is let’s change Medicaid to 50-50. Let’s change food stamps to 50-50. Let’s get rid of candy from food stamps. Let’s get rid of full sugar soda from food stamps. Let’s get rid of chips and dips and Ding Dongs and Twinkies from food stamps.”