Medicaid

As I've noted before, "The Daily Signal" is a front site for the right-wing think-tank-turned-propaganda-machine Heritage Foundation.

In their latest bit of silliness, they've come up with a modified version of Sharyl "a stuck key on my computer means Obama is spying on me!" Attkisson's laughable butchering of math last year.

When Attkisson posted her phantom numbers, one of the biggest ways she came up with her phony tally of how many people have gained healthcare coverage was to simply ignore Medicaid expansion completely. Apparently Medicaid "doesn't count" as healthcare coverage for some reason or another (or perhaps it's the other way around: To conservatives, anyone who qualifies for Medicaid apparently "doesn't count" as a human being). As a result, she was able to lop off about 6.1 million newly enrolled Medicaid recipients at the time (this is now up to perhaps 10 million newly covered out of the 14.5 million or so who've been added to the Medicaid rolls since the ACA was enacted).

This time around, a "Melissa Quinn" has posted a 700-piece article which purports to blow the lid off the most shocking scandal of the decade:

Presented without comment. (thanks to Sahil Kapur for the link):

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
Keith Hall, Director
U.S. Congress
Washington, DC 20515

August 3, 2015

Honorable Mike Enzi
Chairman
Committee on the Budget
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Re: Budgetary Effects of S. 1881

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Last week, CBO provided the following information in response to a request for an estimate of the budgetary effects of S. 1881:

S. 1881, which would prohibit federal funds from being made available to Planned Parenthood Federation of America or any of its affiliates, could affect direct spending for the Medicaid program; however, CBO has not determined whether the legislation would increase or decrease the program’s spending. Completing an estimate of such effects would take some time.

The CMS Dept. has quietly released their latest monthly Medicaid/CHIP enrollment report through the end of May...which happens to line up almost perfectly with what I was expecting:

• Over 71.6 million individuals were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP in May 2015. This enrollment count is point-in-time (on the last day of the month) and includes all enrollees in the Medicaid and CHIP programs who are receiving a comprehensive benefit package.
• 509,082 additional people were enrolled in May 2015 as compared to April 2015 in the 51 states that reported comparable May and April 2015 data.
• Looking at the additional enrollment since October 2013 when the initial Marketplace open enrollment period began, among the 49 states reporting both May 2015 enrollment data and data from July-September of 2013, more than 12.8 million additional individuals are enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP as of May 2015, more than a 22 percent increase over the average monthly enrollment for July through September of 2013. (Connecticut and Maine are not included in this count.)