Now, the Government Accountability Office believes the Obama Administration allowed Arkansas to fiddle around with cost estimates to get Washington’s okay for the plan. According to Fiscal Times, “When Arkansas expanded Medicaid through its private option earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services estimated that the first-of-its-kind program would be budget-neutral. But now federal auditors are blaming HHS for flawed estimates and say it will actually cost taxpayers an extra $778 million over the next three years.
In a new report from the Government Accountability Office, auditors say HHS did not ensure budget neutrality.
From the report:
There’s no free lunch. Whether we pass Medicaid expansion with regular Medicaid or private insurance, taxpayers are on the hook. And as costs go up, other priorities like education will get squeezed. Nobody can fake the numbers forever.