Illinois Paid Millions in Medicaid for People Who Are Already Dead

The proof is in the pudding, as they say. In other words, if you want to see the “competency” and “efficiency” of leftists at work, look to Illinois. Among a myriad of state-wide problems created by leftist ideology, a new report from the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General uncovered that Illinois spent at least $4.6 million between 2015 and 2017 on people who are already dead.

Those uninitiated in the utter lack of competency among leftists may wonder how this could ever happen. How does the state spend money on dead people? Well, ABC 20 out of Springfield, Ill., explains it this way:

Here’s how it works: managed care organizations provide health care to Medicaid patients in exchange for monthly “capitation” payments from the state. “This means they pay a specific amount at a regular interval for that person, depending on their age, gender, and disease states,” Petersburg Pharmacy owner Dave Bagot said. “And what happened was they continued making these payments for these folks after they had passed away.”

ABC 20’s article makes the obvious point that “Some believe now other areas of Illinois Medicaid need to be looked into.”

True. Although I would make a minor edit, changing “other areas” to “all areas.” The thing is, considering that the Office of Inspector General is demanding that the state pay back the roughly $3.2 million in federal dollars that went towards Medicaid payments for dead people, looking into other areas of Illinois Medicaid could end up being quite costly for Illinois taxpayers.

Considering the inability of leftists to govern without costing taxpayers more and more of their hard-earned money, all while undermining the ability of humans to flourish, it’s no wonder that residents are fleeing states like Illinois, California, and New York. The scary thing is that the same political ideology that helped result in taxpayers having to foot the bill for Medicaid payments for people who are no longer living is in full flourish among the entire slate of 2020 Democrat presidential hopefuls.