They are called evergreens in the news business – stories that can be reported and run at any time because nothing's going to change them. Some are the foundation of prize-winning journalism – the conditions of mental hospitals, homes for the elderly prisons, and today's topic: Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for the poor.
Last week NPR reported that more than two-thirds of Medicaid recipients are enrolled in managed care programs, a public-private arrangement whose beneficiaries have increased rapidly since 2014 under Obamacare. Yet the evidence is thin that patient care or Medicaid's financial indiscipline are improving. When auditors, lawmakers and regulators bother to look, many conclude that Medicaid insurers fail to account for the dollars spent, deliver necessary care or provide access to a sufficient number of doctors.
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