Medicaid Savings - Make Them Work?, Why Not Quit Smoking?

WASHINGTON - May 21, 2025 - PRLog -- Despite President Trump's strong admonition - "Don't f--k around with Medicaid" - the House GOP proposal would slash federal support for Medicaid by nearly $700 billion over a decade; a change which would strip Medicaid coverage from more than 10 million people over 10 years.

But more than half of the desired savings could be achieved by a simple alternative, which has been approved and advocated by the states' insurance commissioners, tested by many private companies, and incorporated under Obamacare, suggests public interest law professor John Banzhaf, and no one would be forced to go without health insurance.

His answer is one which both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been advocated for many years; impose some personal responsibility on those who want the benefits by health insurance.

Instead of broadly slashing Medicaid benefits across the board, thereby especially impacting the majority of current beneficiaries who may not be able to do anything to help themselves, imposing personal responsibility upon those who balloon the costs of medical services by asking them to quit smoking or pay for the huge medical costs they now impose on others would help solve much of the problem, says Banzhaf, who helped persuade Congress to adopt a 50% surcharge on smokers under Obamacare based upon research he did for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners [NAIC].

One way to do this - as recommended by the NAIC - would be to require smokers to pay the excess costs their habit now unnecessarily imposes in order to have health insurance coverage; just as smokers have always been required to pay more than nonsmokers for their life insurance, and in many cases for their home and/or car insurance.

Asking them to accept personal responsibility for their own unhealthy and often deadly health care choices by paying all or most of that in order to remain on Medicaid would pressure some of them to quit; while those who choose to remain smokers would be paying their fair share of the costs rather than imposing them on others, Banzhaf adds.

It is estimated that, under the Medicaid reform proposed by the House Republicans, more than 10 million Americans will become uninsured; a number which includes many who are powerless to do anything about it.

So, while forcing smokers to pay a fair share of the huge health costs they currently impose on others through Medicaid might persuade many of them to leave the plan, this is less unfair since they - unlike many of the others who will probably be dropped - can avoid this simply by giving up smoking; as tens of millions of former smokers have, argues Banzhaf.

http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com