A Focus on APTC is misdirection

IRS:

“Advance premium tax credits (APTC) are financial assistance provided to help lower the monthly premiums for health insurance purchased through the Health Insurance Marketplace. Eligibility for APTC is based on income and household size, and individuals can choose to apply these credits in advance to reduce their monthly payments or claim them when filing taxes.”

SHARYL ATTKISSON reports:

“Obamacare mandates a certain set of essential health benefits (EHBs) be covered by insurance plans within the individual health insurance market. States may choose to mandate additional benefits but are then required to cover the cost of such benefits. States are not permitted to use federal tax dollars, in the form of Advance Premium Tax Credits (APTCs), to do so.”

In identifying waste, fraud & abuse, the GAO (Government Accountability Office) reports that Obamacare delegates oversight of each State’s behavior to each State itself. This is obvious folly, sadly to be expected from having written an actual requirement into the law.

But a focus on APTC is misdirection, because the bigger “misuse” of federal dollars comes in the form of Medicaid. Federal grants of Medicaid dollars to the States come with no strings attached. The law places no requirements on their use. So Medicaid money, which political narrative tells us is granted to support medical care for the poor, can be, and is by at least some States, swept into the State’s General Fund and used to plug budget shortfalls of any kind. No wonder so few doctors accept Medicaid. It doesn’t pay them. Once again, the care is denied and the money is diverted … This time, by the States.