Medicaid has long been the second biggest drain on Illinois taxpayers behind the public-pension crisis – mostly due to the fact that more than half (51.3%) of state Medicaid recipients were ineligible to receive it, according to previous audits . In fact, long before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) launched its exchanges and enrollment deadlines, audits had already exposed 2,850 dead people receiving Medicaid in Illinois.
Since the implementation of the ACA in Illinois, a new audit finds that number has now increased to more than 8,000 dead people receiving Medicaid services. How do we know this? Thanks to the use of private auditors driven by state Rep. Patti Bellock (R-Hinsdale), the state has been able to eliminate some fraud and abuse despite interference from public sector unions like AFSCME.
Of the 685,000 Illinoisans who’ve signed up for health-plan coverage through Get Covered Illinois, more than two-thirds (68.3%) have come from an aggressive expansion of the Medicaid rolls.