The current Medicaid system has been prioritizing the wrong people, and the reforms being discussed aim to preserve the system, Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) said during an interview on Breitbart News Daily discussing the panic over potential reforms to the program.
“Obviously Medicaid is one of those things where, from my perspective — and again, you’ve got all kind of perspectives up here — but I just feel like the current tax really kind of fails to address the Obamacare expansions of Medicaid, which, again, that’s been my argument all along,” Harris began, explaining that they have been “prioritizing the 30-year-old living in his mom and dad’s basement, as opposed to those that are really vulnerable and really need it.”
“I mean, the Medicare reforms I’ve been looking for and open for in this would actually try to preserve the system, because if we didn’t make the adjustments, we’re going to be at $1 trillion in just a few short years, and it’s just unsustainable,” he explained.
“And what I’m looking for is a Medicaid reform that can actually make this program what it was meant to be originally, and that was to take care of pregnant women, children, seniors and people with disabilities,” Harris said, emphasizing that the program needs to be reformed to help the people it was originally created for.
“They’re the people that Medicaid needs to be reformed, to be preserved for, and the expansion that we’ve seen has just, you know, it’s put it in a place that it’s unsustainable. And we have an opportunity to do that now. You know, I fear we may come up short on that. … There’s things that have got to be done here,” he continued.
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Harris added that, when it comes to Medicaid reform, they are primarily looking at work requirements.
“But again, the work requirements and the current tags don’t kick in for four years. That’s concerning to me. It needs to happen before four years down the road,” he said, explaining that he believes they have the timetable so long to give states time to make the adjustments.
“But again, I’m all for increasing work requirements for able-bodied adults,” the congressman said. “I just think they need to start sooner than 2029.”
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
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