On Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said that it was “unsustainable” to have 70 million on Medicaid but only 35 million people living below the poverty line in the United States.
Mullin said, “We are cutting the waste, fraud and abuse, and I want to use the word abuse, come out of the Medicaid system and make sure it is for the people that it was originally intended for. Keep in mind there’s 35 million people that live under the poverty line inside the United States, yet 70 million on Medicaid — it is unsustainable. Medicaid was designed for those in the most dire need, and we need to make sure it is there.”
He added, “Ever since ObamaCare, there has been this loophole that allows the states to charge providers an exorbitant amount to pay their share, so instead of the states paying their share, they are charging the providers which requires the United States taxpayers and other states to offset these high provider taxes inside different states. North Carolina has a high provider tax. What we are saying is it needs to be even — every state should be the same, so we are gradually bringing down what states provide in making it even across the board, so there is an even playing field. One state, like Oklahoma, isn’t offsetting higher provider taxes than North Carolina or California.”
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