The massive Medicaid program for lower income Americans is rapidly being outsourced by states to private insurers, mainly for-profit entities, with scant public discussion and no systematic study of the potential risks for the 30 million people covered — a number growing rapidly as the program expands under the federal health law. The bill to taxpayers is also increasing quickly, already topping $100 billion a year. Jenni Bergal examined, in order, the widely varying quality of oversight of the privately run health plans for Medicaid recipients, the dangers of rushing into managed care, states’ reluctance to kick out poor performing plans — even those guilty of fraud — and the hazards of moving the most disabled people into managed care. No other news organization has done such an in-depth examination, which has continued into 2014.
