Comment by josephcsible
22 days ago
> There is no evidence this is happening in any widespread fashion.
Isn't the point of this data so that they can uncover exactly that? It'd be silly to say you're not allowed to look for evidence of anything unless you already have evidence of it. Also, the qualifier "in any widespread fashion" is weasel words. It makes me think you already know it is happening, and the only remaining question is to what scale.
How exactly would non-citizens, who do not have social security numbers or other valid identifying documents, receive medicaid? It's difficult enough for qualified people to get it. It would seem fairly difficult to pass the registration process without having a valid SSN. Furthermore, if someone was able to fraudulently sign up - say by using a stolen identity, then wouldn't the data in the system look valid and therefore not really show up on an audit?
And as the GP pointed out, it makes no sense to put the president's paramilitary agency¹ in charge of such an audit, rather than qualified auditors, perhaps from the HHS² OIG³.
1. https://www.newstatesman.com/world/americas/north-america/us...
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_He...
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Inspector_General_(U...
"who do not have social security numbers" how would one prove or disprove this assumption?
Isn't identity theft a problem in the US? Especially because something which was not meant to be used as ID is used as one (the SSN)?
There are provisions in federal law which allow non citizens to receive federal Medicaid dollars in some circumstances.