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Tiffany and Grothman Propose Medicaid Reform
The latest Medicaid debate on Capitol Hill focused more on reforms, and work requirements, than cuts.
Two of Wisocnsin’s Republican members of Congress spoke about changes to the nation’s Medicaid system on Wednesday.
Congressman Glenn Grothman said the current Medicaid system works against millions of people across the country.
“We have a program that discourages marriage and hard work, and at the same time encourages dependency,” Grothman said Tuesday. “It costs taxpayers more than a trillion dollars annually while failing to lift people out of poverty.”
Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany took to Twitter on Wednesday to echo Grothman. He said the biggest change that the federal government, or Wisconsin as a state, can adopt is a work requirement.
“Able-bodied, working-aged, childless adults should not be allowed to sit on the couch and collect Medicaid benefits that you are paying for,” Tiffany wrote. “They should be required to work, which 80% of Wisconsinites support.”
Republicans are proposing a work requirement that would have able-bodied work 20 hours a week, or volunteer, go to school, take workforce training, or provide some community service.
Democrats on Capitol Hill say a work requirement is essentially a “Medicaid cut.”
Grothman said that’s not true, and said reforming Medicaid is both a fiscal and cultural must.
“The biggest problem is not the fact that we're overspending on this at a time when we're broke out-of-our-mind,” Grothman added. “The biggest problem is what it does to the people who become part of the program. Rental assistance programs account for more than $53 billion of federal spending each year, which is just amazing.”
Grothman said you can find similar numbers in almost every other public benefit program that the federal government pays for.
Grothman said Congress “owes it” to taxpayers to get public assistance right, to help serve the people who true;ly need it.
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