Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., rejected the "fearmongering" from Democrats over Medicaid reform and assured that benefits will remain intact for the tens of millions of Americans who are qualified for it, but she told Newsmax on Thursday that 60% of the people on it are not eligible.
President Donald Trump vowed Wednesday that he's "not going to touch" entitlement programs like Medicaid but also promised to root out fraud.
"Since 2019, the last five years, we've seen an increase in Medicaid; it's a 51% increase. You have people, 60% of the people on Medicaid now, are not who it was intended for; not the disabled, not the pregnant women, not the elderly — these are able-bodied people," Harshbarger said on "National Report."
Harshbarger is a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has been tasked with finding cost-savings from the fraud and abuse within programs like Medicaid.
"There's a lot to cut with fraud, waste and abuse," she said. "But no one is going to lose their Medicaid if they are legitimately qualified for that. So the fearmongering that the other side, the Democrats are doing, is unfounded."
Harshbarger said she's in favor of work requirements on those who are "able-bodied" and also said federal caps on Medicaid are being looked at, adding that the states need to take the primary role of managing who belongs on Medicaid.
"If you've got able-bodied people on Medicaid that probably shouldn't be on there, all we're asking is you work like 20 hours a week," Harshbarger said. "[T]he significance in what that will cut — $100 billion just in that alone — if you implement work requirements on these people that are able-bodied; it's not intended for the disabled, the elderly or pregnant women.
"But look, it's not the federal government that would take someone off of Medicaid. That is your governor, that is your state. So all we're saying is, let's put caps on the money that we're sending. Let the state be in charge of putting people on or off Medicaid. But if you can save almost $900 billion where there's fraud, waste and abuse, we're tasked with this. This is a mandate from the American public. We are supposed to stop the spending and bend the spending curve because we're $36 trillion in debt. And if they want to argue about that, then we've got a great argument to hand them."
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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