‘Deadbeat dudes’ on Medicaid hog healthcare dollars

As the clock turns to March, spring and basketball fever, I’m reminded of my sister-in-law Mary. She was born in the spring and her life, spirit and even her full name “Mary Ellen” was as spring-like as anyone I’ve ever known.

Mary’s last minutes were sad — and beautiful. She was 53 years old when she passed away almost two years ago now of Alzheimer’s disease exacerbated by her Down’s syndrome. She passed in her childhood home with her family and the memories of a live well-lived all around her.

A full-time caregiver was also at her side, afforded by my in-laws’ middle-class life of consciously living within in their means and paid in part by my father-in-law’s well-earned Air Force healthcare retirement benefits.

Mary was lucky. She didn’t have to rely on Medicaid.

Medicaid, as a refresher, is our country’s safety net. It is government-funded healthcare for our nation’s most vulnerable populations, including those with Down’s syndrome and the special families who support them. The program’s intent is that we cover the elderly, the disabled and the hardworking families who come in well under the federal poverty line.

While this spring is filled with ObamaCare repeal/replace fever, one of the law’s most disturbing legacies seems to hide in the shadows. A material part of the often-quoted 20 million newly covered under ObamaCare include those whom to President Obama expanded Medicaid coverage for the first time ever: single, able-bodied males with no dependents making less than $16,000 a year.

For way too many of these men, there is a clear reason why they fall under the poverty line.

{mosads}These new generation of men, the majority aged 25 to 55, are unemployed with no plans to enter the workforce. I call them “deadbeat dudes.” Young men with limited responsibilities are now considered a protected class in our country, and the American taxpayer is picking up the responsibility of paying their healthcare costs.

These deadbeat dudes are like a schoolyard bully on the playground, hogging the ball from those who want and need to be in the game.

As someone in the industry, working daily with healthcare providers and businesses, I see where our taxpayer dollars are going. Supporting deadbeat dudes often means paying for their painkiller addictions or hepatitis C medications.

Pennsylvania pharmacy technician Sarah Hannock witnesses this devastating issue firsthand on a daily basis. She consistently sees able-bodied patients coming through her door with three or more different control prescriptions, funded entirely through Medicaid. She says that some of the patients even complain of the minimal costs they have to pay to receive these expensive drugs. She calls the epidemic “sickening.”

As of a 2013 study, over 20 percent of all civilian men between 25 and 55 receive Medicaid.

To continue the sports analog, we’re now “down a man” in the ever-so-serious game of revitalizing the American economy and saving our healthcare system.

Luckily, our president has a ringer on his team, with expertise in how to thwart this waste of taxpayer dollars: Vice President Mike Pence. When Vice President Pence was Indiana’s Gov. Pence, he accepted the Medicaid expansion dollars for his state, but on his terms. Alongside Seema Verma, President Trump’s pick for Administrator for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, this dynamic duo ran the conservative version of the Medicaid expansion.

The Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) assists Medicaid beneficiaries but also fosters personal responsibility for its enrollees. Medicaid enrollees had to pay a monthly premium — even if it was only $1 — to participate in HIP. These monthly premiums foster an investment in the insurance enrollees receive, since they have real, tangible skin in the game.

Additionally, it was only available to those who truly deserve some governmental assistance: those below or slightly above the federal poverty line.

Pence’s work has been noticed. Wisconsin, for example, had some Medicaid problems. Medicaid services cover nearly 1.2 million people in Wisconsin — roughly one in five resident — and are the second largest expense in the state after education.

Soon, Wisconsin’s Medicaid director plans to charge childless adults premiums of $1 to $5 a month, limit their coverage to four years and require a drug-testing assessment.

Young men who sit on the sidelines, growing dependent on free prescription drugs and watching TV for a living, won’t make Wisconsin’s or Indiana’s Medicaid rosters.

Mary and so many like her with developmental disabilities are the farthest thing from deadbeats, and they deserve the benefits of a program born in a different time. A time when prime-aged men would be embarrassed to be out of the game of life — not feeling entitled to hog the ball when not snoozing in the not-so-cheap seats paid for with our taxes.

Bryan Rotella is founder and managing shareholder of the Rotella Legal Group. He previously worked for two Ohio governors and has advised presidential campaigns on healthcare issues.

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