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In The News: Surging, Skyrocketing, & Skydiving

arkansas newsHere’s a triad of stories with implications for Arkansas taxpayers that are setting the internet ablaze today.
1. Fraudulent Medicaid enrollment is surging under Obamacare.
Don’t miss this story from some guy and Josh Archambault:

Arkansas is the only Southern state to embrace ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion, though buyer’s remorse may be setting in. Just last week, the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) announced that nearly 5,000 enrollees in the state’s Medicaid expansion are being kicked off the program.
According to the department, the state trusted the fed’s list of applicants and blindly proceeded to roll them into the state’s Medicaid expansion. It’s now clear the feds failed to verify applicants’ income before relaying the list, resulting in 5,000 fraudulent Medicaid enrollments.

Read the full piece at Forbes.
2. Under Obamacare, ER use is skyrocketing.
Taxpayers were promised that the opposite would happen, but now, under Obamacare, ER use is escalating:

It wasn’t supposed to work this way, but since the Affordable Care Act took effect in January, Norton Hospital has seen its packed emergency room become even more crowded, with about 100 more patients a month.
That 12 percent spike in the number of patients — many of whom aren’t actually facing true emergencies — is spurring the Louisville hospital to convert a waiting room into more exam rooms.

Read the full story here from THV.
3. It’s former President George H. W. Bush’s 90th birthday.
OK, this story really has no Arkansas (or policy) implications, but this is just awesome. It’s Bush 41’s birthday so, naturally, like all 90-year-olds, he celebrated by going skydiving:

Former President George H.W. Bush celebrated his 90th birthday on Thursday by making a tandem parachute jump near his summer home in coastal Maine, delivering on a vow he made five years ago even though he can no longer use his legs.
The nation’s 41st president jumped from a helicopter at 6,000 feet harnessed to Sgt. 1st Class Mike Elliott, a retired member of the Golden Knights, the Army’s parachute team, near Kennebunkport.

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