Kate Brown’s Medicaid Scandal Grows By $112 Million

November 20, 2017

Oregon Democrat Governor Kate Brown’s Medicaid scandal is growing worse by the day, and in a sign of her inability to provide leadership, she’s still refusing to publicly address it or allow an independent investigation.

Shocking testimony by the director of the Oregon Health Authority late last week revealed $112 million in “erroneously paid, allocated, inaccurately recorded or over-claimed” Medicaid expenditures. The Portland Tribune notes that this figure is in addition to the $74 million in over payments to Medicaid providers reported earlier this month.

This is now the third Medicaid scandal for Kate Brown this year alone. In May, the Oregonian reported the state had “dispensed millions of dollars in Medicaid assistance to thousands of Oregonians with no idea whether they were eligible.” In September, Oregon was forced to expel nearly 55,000 enrollees – half of its Medicaid patients – from the program because they were deemed ineligible.

The editor of the Bend Bulletin took Kate Brown to task for her repeated scandals, calling it a “crisis of competence.”

“November 2017 has turned out to be a difficult month for Gov. Kate Brown. The reason why, if unaddressed, could turn November 2018 into a difficult month for her as well.”

“Things got even worse on Monday. Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen told lawmakers that even more Medicaid payment problems are likely to pop up in the near future. Brown was in Germany.”

“The state seems to lurch almost hopelessly from one costly screw-up to another: Cover Oregon, botched health-care payments, a runaway public pension system and almost anything the state Department of Energy touches, to name a few. Oregon is starving for effective leadership on these and so many other matters, yet we have a governor who’s busy saying, in effect, let them eat climate change.”

Despite these repeated scandals at the Oregon Health Authority, Kate Brown has refused to hold a press conference to answer questions, launch an independent investigation, or release her administration’s related communications and documents.

Oregonians deserve a Governor who is competent and transparent. Kate Brown is neither.