John Oliver dove into the bureaucratic mess of Medicaid on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, amid a “great unraveling” that has dropped enrollment by more than 11 million people in the past year, including 4.8 million children, the vast majority of whom were kicked off their healthcare for surprise procedural issues. “Just for once, could the government blindside people with something beneficial, or even just fun?” Oliver wondered. “Like if one day Congress announced they’d be adding Shrek to Mt Rushmore.”
In numerous cases, care was terminated without any notice from the state – one of several instances in which “everything about the current unwinding is emblematic of much larger issues with how we’ve always administered Medicaid”, said Oliver. The program was first enacted in 1965, as a partnership between the federal government and state governments, with much leeway given to states for running their programs with matching federal funds.
