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--></style></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> spike@rainier66.com <spike@rainier66.com> <br><b>…</b></span><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'>>… went into public records, found payments being made to public daycare centers, went there, found buildings marked as daycares and “learing” centers, asked the obvious questions: where are the children? That isn’t a fact, it is a question. Hey, inquiring minds want to know. …spike<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Reason is buzzing about the Shirley video. They had an interesting take on it today. They were explaining why Medicaid keeps having these problems even though they have been playing whack-a-mole with scammers for well over a decade:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><a href="https://reason.com/2025/12/30/the-minnesota-welfare-fraud-story-is-really-about-a-broken-medicaid-bureaucracy/?utm_source=Reason+Magazine&utm_campaign=a757e77c1a-reason_brand%7Cnew_at_reason%7C2025_12_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_31d7ef7f57-a757e77c1a-587965146">The Minnesota welfare fraud story is really about Medicaid's broken system</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Reason’s take can be summarized by these two paragraphs:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'>First, it incentivizes states to come up with new Medicaid programs—for every dollar that state lawmakers agree to spend<span style='color:black'>, t<a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/medicaids-funding-formula-rewards-overspending-fuels-fraud"><span style='color:black;text-decoration:none'>hey get several "free" dollars</span></a> from the federal government to help pad the budget. In Minnesota, for example, <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/state-indicator/federalstate-share-of-spending/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D"><span style='color:black;text-decoration:none'>only 42 percent</span></a> of Medicaid spending is funded by the state.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black'>The second problem is that states have <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/it-was-someone-was-stealing-money-cookie-jar-they-kept-refilling-it"><span style='color:black;text-decoration:none'>little incentive</span></a> to police </span></b><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'>the Medicaid spending they oversee. Governments are always bad at spotting fraud because they are spending other people's money, but the Medicaid matching grants double down on that problem: Most of the dollars being spent are not just someone else's money; they are coming from another government's budget.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p><div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><div><div><div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><o:p> </o:p></p></div></blockquote></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></div></body></html>