New report: NC officials edited out information that proves Medicaid isn't "broken" after all

[kpete]

WED OCT 09, 2013 AT 07:05 AM PDT
New report: NC officials edited out information that proves Medicaid isn't "broken" after all
by
Christian Dem in NC

North Carolina was one of the states that refused to expand Medicaid in order to prepare for the implementation of Obamacare, partly due to claims by Governor Pat McCrory and officials in his administration that Medicaid was "broken." But an investigation by North Carolina Health News, a nonprofit newsroom that covers health care issues, reveals that McCrory's people edited out information from the Department of Health and Human Services' response to an audit that shows the state Medicaid program wasn't "broken" at all.

Documents obtained by North Carolina Health News through a public records request show that in January, incoming Sec. Aldona Wos and Medicaid head Carol Steckel eliminated detailed explanations of alleged high administrative costs, management problems and budget overruns in past years.

The resulting document accepts the criticism in Wood’s assessment wholesale and paints the health care program that covers 1.6 million North Carolinians as “broken.”

The criticisms contained in the audit have yielded talking points used by Wos, Steckel and McCrory for the past eight months as justification for turning down a federal expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act and proposing to privatize the program.

http://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2013/10/08/mccrory-administration-officials-suppressed-medicaid-data/

MORE:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/09/1245555/-New-report-NC-officials-edited-out-information-that-proves-Medicaid-isn-t-broken-after-all

[Scuba]

1. Don't like the facts? Get some new ones. IOKIYAR.

[ProSense]

2. These assholes are willing to lie to deny people access to health care. n/t