Iowa’s disastrous Medicaid privatization program was supposed to save money. If it doesn’t save money, Republicans would be exposed as wrong about it from the start. So you can imagine that Iowa Medicaid Director Mike Randol has a motive to spin the numbers in favor of privatization. You might not expect him to deliberately mislead:
Medicaid Director Mike Randol said the state is projected to save $140.9 million in the fiscal year that ends June 30, compared to what the state would have spent before its health care program for low income and disabled people was turned over to for-profit companies.
He did not explain why the state’s savings estimate for this year tripled after Gov. Kim Reynolds hired him to run the Medicaid program late last year. Randol also did not offer a cumulative number showing savings since the privatized Medicaid program started in April 2016.
That’s right. The savings estimate miraculously tripled when Randol was hired, apparently because the Governor needed a bigger number. We can’t get actual savings figures, not yet at least, perhaps because they wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny in the light of day.
After the meeting, Sen. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, said Randol’s presentation was incomplete.
“He looked back at pre-managed care and then compared it to a projection of 2018, rather than comparing it to some actual real numbers from 2017,” Jochum said.
Yeah, that has a funny smell to it, doesn’t it?
