In a preview of what a Republican-dominated Congress may have in mind for the whole country, this state's Department of Human Services has dropped more than 10,000 recipients of Medicaid benefits from the rolls because they've been double-billing their insurance premiums to more than one state. That old line about saving money for the government, i.e., You the People, by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, turns out to be more than an old line. It's all too relevant when it comes to Medicaid payments.
J.R. Davis, a spokesman for this state's governor and budget-cutter-in-chief Asa Hutchinson, drove the point home in a statement declaring: "A priority of the governor is to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars." And what it took in this case, said the department's director, Cindy Gillespie, was a simple, quick, modern-day computerized check of some 700,000 of the state's recipients of benefits under Medicaid, which paid off. Thank you, all you good public servants who have earned that title.
Editorial on 06/27/2017