Quotes About Medicaid

#1. Well, there are about 10 million children that aren't covered by health insurance. About 3 million qualify for Medicaid but don't get it, so we're going to reach out and bring more of those kids into the Medicaid program.

Franklin Raines

#2. In the course of his ongoing crusade for Medicaid expansion, Ohio governor John Kasich has suggested that Ronald Reagan, Saint Peter, and God Himself all would support his plan to accept Obamacare's Medicaid expansion.

Edwin Meese

#3. What I was saying back then was that we have a lot of public health costs that taxpayers end up paying for through Medicaid, Medicare, through uncompensated care, because that was in the context of the push for health care reform and that we needed some way to try to defray those costs.

Hillary Clinton

#4. In fact, entitlement spending on programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security make up 54% of federal spending, and spending is projected to double within the next decade. Medicare is growing by 9% annually, and Medicaid by 8% annually.

Jim Ryun

#5. There is a lot of waste in government-run programs generally, and a lot of waste and fraud and misuse of money in Medicare and Medicaid that can be saved.

Chuck Grassley

#6. Even now, hearing the debates about Medicaid, the suggestion that somehow we could save money by cutting Medicaid strikes a chord in me personally. It seems there are some other ways we can save money rather than making it harder for people like my aunt to get health care.

Josh Earnest

#7. The Medicaid system currently steers people toward nursing home care. Far more people can be covered in community-based care programs for significantly less.

Ed Rendell

#8. In America the scale of medical embezzlement is extraordinary. According to Donald Berwick, the ex-boss of Medicare and Medicaid (the public health schemes for the old and poor), America lost between $82 billion and $272 billion in 2011 to medical fraud and abuse.

Anonymous

#9. We cannot afford to lose the Medicaid funding for low-income women.

Kay Bailey Hutchison

#10. We have a serious structural deficit problem. And it needs to be addressed. The president is trying to address it through reforms of Social Security, but the problem is there with other entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

John W. Snow

#11. The Republican agenda is a radical vision in which Medicaid is slashed to the bone - in which we start to balance the budget on the backs of, literally, our most vulnerable citizens.

Al Franken

#12. I agree with the idea of cutting [budget], but it should all be coming out of entitlements for the affluent and not out of domestic discretionary, which is welfare, education, all the stuff the government does, parks, FBI, and it shouldn't be coming out of Medicaid.

David Brooks

#13. Florida is not going to implement Obamacare. We are not going to expand Medicaid, and we're not going to implement exchanges.

Rick Scott

#14. I certainly would like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion, a rich woman, a middle-class woman, or a poor woman. Unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the ... Medicaid bill.

Henry Hyde

#15. I think every program needs to stand the sunshine of righteous scrutiny. Whether it's Social Security, whether it's Medicaid, whether it's Medicare.

Rick Perry

#16. No matter what federal program one selects - Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the drug war, the income tax and the IRS, education, foreign interventions and wars - they are all a giant mess.

Jacob G. Hornberger

#17. Medicaid is essentially bankrupt, Medicare is essentially bankrupt, why the heck would we give the federal government another entitlement program to manage?

Tim Pawlenty

#18. At a time of economic recession, the need for Medicaid and other safety net services is even greater. And we don't want to raise taxes on people who are having a tough time paying their bills.

James Douglas

#19. Medicaid is a vital safety net for New York's poor and vulnerable, young and old alike.

James T. Walsh

#20. The fundamental fact in the lives of the poor in most parts of America is that the wages of common labor are far below the benefits of AFDC, Medicaid, food stamps, public housing, public defenders, leisure time and all the other goods and services of the welfare state.

George Gilder

#21. Anybody that's asked, I've counseled that they not expand Medicaid eligibility. I've been critical of any expansion because you know what Washington does. It promises something for a finite period of time, and then it leaves you on the hook.

Tom Price

#22. Expanding Medicaid without fixing Medicaid is a terrible idea.

Bob McDonnell

#23. It's not health care reform to dump more money into Medicaid.

Phil Bredesen

#24. Most people don't realize that two-thirds of the federal budget is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Pentagon. The U.S. government is an insurance company with an Army.

Scott Pelley

#25. The decision is 'trust fund' versus 'no more Medicaid' - and that shouldn't be a tough decision.

Haley Barbour

#26. People in Medicaid ought to have access to the same insurance as the rest of the population. If they are segregated, it will be a poor plan for poor people.

John Goodman

#27. How we continue to fund Medicare and Medicaid into the future is a pressing issue of national concern.

James T. Walsh

#28. The automatic stabilizer is unemployment insurance, food stamps, additional coverage of Medicaid.

Franklin Raines

#29. While the federal government is committed to paying 100% of the cost of new people in Medicaid, I cannot, in good conscience, deny the uninsured access to care.

Rick Scott

#30. This legislation provides Medicaid eligibility to evacuees and residents in (Federal Emergency Management Agency) designated disaster counties, .. It also helps pay private health insurance premiums for those at risk for losing their coverage.

Thad Cochran

#31. I don't think anybody should be expanding Medicaid. I think it's a mistake to create new and more expensive entitlement programs when we can't afford the ones we've got today. We've got to stop this culture of government dependence.

Bobby Jindal

#32. Forty states have sued tobacco companies over the costs of health care for residents on Medicaid and public assistance.

Bill Dedman

#33. A loose definition of the Tea Party might be fifteen million pissed-off white people sent chasing after Mexicans on Medicaid by the small handful of banks and investment companies who advertise on Fox and CNBC.

Matt Taibbi

#34. We need a vibrant Medicaid program and strategies to expand affordable access to health care for all, especially for the specialty care services that community health centers do not provide.

Jan Schakowsky

#35. Half of all women who are sexually active, but do not want to get pregnant, need publicly funded services to help them access public health programs like Medicaid and Title X, the national family planning program.

Louise Slaughter

#36. You're entitled to Medicaid regardless of your income. Don't worry about your health care.

Max Baucus

#37. When it comes to serious cuts to major programs like Medicaid, the American people are not calling for leadership but magic. They want cuts with no pain.

Juan Williams

#38. In 2005, Republicans passed a 360-page reconciliation bill without a single Democratic vote that provided deep cuts to Medicaid and raised premiums on Medicare beneficiaries.

Bernie Sanders

#39. Medicaid protects impoverished children, the frail elderly and people in crisis, .. Its limited resources will be further stretched serving hurricane victims. Proponents of Medicaid cuts either undervalue Medicaid assistance or underestimate American compassion.

Sherrod Brown

#40. Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits are unacceptable, and they shouldn't be put on the table by Democrats for any reason.

Russ Feingold

#41. The Federal role in overcoming barriers to needed health care should emphasize health care financing programs-such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Gerald R. Ford

#42. I don't think the press has done a very good job dealing with government spending.The Defense Department with the $9,500 toilet seat, that's not the problem anymore. Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security are the problem. That's us. That's our generation. There the press never says a word.

Dave Barry

#43. We believe that if you put in place the mechanisms that allow for personal choice as far as Medicare is concerned, as well as the programs in Medicaid, that we can actually get to a better result and do what most Americans are learning how to do, which is to do more with less.

Eric Cantor

#44. Medicaid and the Child Health Insurance Program are the two most important safety net programs for children.

Irwin Redlener

#45. General revenue - what taxpayers are willing to give government, what they think is fair to give government - is not going to grow at the same amount that the federal government basically forces us to spend on Medicaid.

Rick Scott

#46. Unfortunately, the (budget) does not ... help Congress reform such programs as Medicaid and Medicare, which both grow at average rate of around 8 percent each year through 2015 and will continue to eat up more of the total federal budget.

John Cornyn

#47. In Florida, Medicaid is the fastest-growing part of our state budget - hands down. It is increasing at more than 3.5 times the rate of our general revenue.

Rick Scott

#48. A new report shows that medicare and Medicaid made more than $50 Billion in bad payments during fiscal year 2011. Under Obamacare, that'll become known as 'Tuesday.'

Fred Thompson

#49. With its Medicaid expansion, Obamacare may turn out to be the most equality-promoting policy enacted in a generation.

Timothy Noah

#50. If he'd been negotiating Obamacare, Lincoln would have made the infamous 'Cornhusker Kickback' deal - $100 million in Medicaid funds for Nebraska to secure a Senator's vote - in a heartbeat, even if the press howled as it did when Barack Obama agreed to it, forcing its cancellation.

Joe Klein

#51. We all know there are problems with Obamacare, and Washington's implementation of it has been abysmal. But rejecting Medicaid won't fix any of those things.

Jay Nixon

#52. Our fiat currency is under increasing stress with our large and growing trade deficits. We have a federal deficit that is calculated in the trillions when we take into account the net present value of the future Social Security and Medicaid obligations we are creating today.

George Noory

#53. One thing governors feel, Democrats and Republicans alike, is that we have a health care system that, if you're on Medicaid, you have unlimited access to health care, at unlimited levels, at no cost. No wonder it's running away.

Mike Huckabee

#54. Governors of both political parties face a stark choice between unpopular tax increases and drastic cuts in Medicaid, education, public safety and other essential services.

Bill Delahunt

#55. Marriage equality - I think that it's a constitutionally guaranteed right. Let's end the drug wars. Let's balance the federal budget, and that means reforming the entitlements - Medicaid, Medicare.

Gary Johnson

#56. Healthcare costs are rising, and not just Medicare and Medicaid, but healthcare in general.

Gwen Moore

#57. As for my state of Mississippi, our governor, Phil Bryant, said the state could not afford the matching funds required to trigger the federal match for Medicaid expansion. We won't do it even though in 2014, the federal government would pay over $50 for every one dollar Mississippi chips in.

Ronnie Musgrove

#58. I think the Republican budget priorities are messed up. I salute for the way they're attacking some of the entitlement programs, but they are taking huge cuts, by pretending they're just block-granting it to the states, out of Medicaid, from the least fortunate.

David Brooks

#59. What is Medicaid all about? It's staying true to the mission: to care for people historically left behind.

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

#60. What are we Democrats fighting for? We are not fighting for salvation and going to heaven. But we are fighting for Medicaid, Medicare, health care, education, jobs, helping old folks.

Charles B. Rangel

#61. In 2003, GlaxoSmithKline paid $88 million in civil fines for overcharging Medicaid for its anti-depressant Paxil.

Bernie Sanders

#62. Under President Obama's new health care law, Medicaid will become a very different health coverage program than first envisioned.

Fred Upton

#63. Medicaid only allowed you three choices of
frames ... ugly, uglier, and fuckin rape prevention birth control!

Jeff Erno

#64. You put me in charge of Medicaid, the first thing I'd do is get [female recipients] Norplant, birth-control implants, or tubal ligations. Then, we'll test recipients for drugs and alcohol, and if you want to [reproduce] or use drugs or alcohol, then get a job.

Russell Pearce

#65. Tens of billions of dollars could be saved in Medicare and Medicaid alone by eliminate fraud and improving patient care. Not only would this save money, but it will save lives.

Tim Murphy

#66. Mark my words, there will be an intensive effort to privatize Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid.

Bernie Sanders

#67. The federal government would give money to the states. States would be able to negotiate at local rates. It's not Medicaid. People didn't want it to be Medicaid in Washington, either.

Maria Cantwell

#68. Even before ObamaCare, the government took care of the bottom 5 or 10 percent of the public who were on Medicaid.

Rand Paul

#69. Planning is the essence of good management and when it comes to health care we must allow states to plan for future needs. We need to cement this federal commitment to Alaskans so the state has the assurance that money vital for providing Medicaid health care will not just dry up and disappear.

Lisa Murkowski

#70. I will seek to reverse the shift of benefits from Medicaid to Medicare and hold harmless our seniors and disabled.

Jeff Bingaman

#71. Medicaid provides health care to our neediest citizens. While other states have had to cut Medicaid rolls and benefits already, Delaware has not. But the President's proposed budget would shift tens of millions of dollars of cost to the states, raising the real possibility of program cuts.

Ruth Ann Minner

#72. The only possible role that I can see for reconciliation would be to make modest changes in the major package to improve affordability, to deal with what share of Medicaid expansion the federal government pays, those kinds of issues, which is the traditional role for reconciliation in health care.

Kent Conrad

#73. Republicans drove us into debt with two wars and the Bush tax cuts. Now they want to pay for that debt with cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. This is not only immoral it is bad economics. Why do Republicans always have money for war but not for those in need?

Bernie Sanders

#74. In a system where the cost of care is hidden by taxes levied on your income, property, and business activities, it is no wonder why so many Americans rely on Medicaid to pay their long term care.

Michael Burgess

#75. Instead of talking about cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, we must end the absurdity of corporations not paying a nickel in federal income taxes.

Bernie Sanders

#76. If you like the post office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they're run well, just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government.

Arthur Laffer

#77. Programs like food stamps, unemployment insurance, Medicaid, and job retraining help Americans get back on their feet when they are down and out and laid off through no fault of their own.

Hank Johnson

#78. The reason prescription drugs are so important at the state level is because they're eating up the Medicaid budget.

John Kitzhaber

#79. Originally created to serve the poorest and sickest among us, the Medicaid program has grown dramatically but still doesn't include the kind of flexibility that states need to provide better health care for the poor and disadvantaged.

Fred Upton

#80. Republican governors are more lunatic than they used to be - as attested by all the ones so eager to turn down free federal money to qualify more of their poor citizens for Medicaid under Obamacare. Meanwhile, some states have taken the money only to hoard it.

Rick Perlstein

#81. I don't have a problem talking about Medicare or Medicaid or some other very important issue.

Jason Chaffetz

#82. If you got problems like unemployment, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and there's a guy that's always been there for you and for your family, then you say 'He's a nice guy. I don't know where he came from or how long he's been here, but Charlie Rangel's the man.' That's what I'm relying on.

Charles B. Rangel

#83. No one was elected to Congress because he or she promised to cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.

James P. Hoffa

#84. If we were to expand Medicaid, for every uninsured person we would cover, we'd kick more than one person out of private insurance or remove their opportunity to get private insurance. We're going to have too many people in the cart rather than pulling the cart.

Bobby Jindal

#85. So often, generalizations don't apply to Catholic voters. Catholics are concerned about the war, the economy, about issues like abortion, issues pertaining to the budget and funding Medicaid and Medicare and what happens to the environment.

Bob Casey Jr.

#86. Simply expanding Medicaid does not improve health care outcomes. In Louisiana, instead we're helping people getting better paying jobs so they can provide for their own health care.

Bobby Jindal

#87. 10. Medicaid patients who bitch about $1 copay, then go up front and buy cigarettes & beer.

Dennis Miller

#88. Government did get into the health care business in a big way in 1965 with Medicare, and later with Medicaid, and government already distorts the marketplace.

Roy Blunt

#89. The central question is whether Medicare and Medicaid should remain entitlement programs guaranteeing a certain amount of care, as Democrats believe, or become defined contribution programs in which federal spending is capped, as Republicans suggest.

Christina Romer

#90. You defended your Medicaid expansion by invoking God.

Megyn Kelly

#91. Common sense tells us that the government's attempts to solve large problems more often create new ones. Common sense also tells us that a top-down, one-size-fits-all plan will not improve the workings of a nationwide health-care system that accounts for one-sixth of our economy.

Sarah Palin