OPINION:
Those familiar with the workings of our federal government are well aware that too many billions of dollars are regularly squandered each year because of waste, fraud and/or a pervasive lack of incentives to spend taxpayers’ money responsibly. The vast majority of Americans likely associate the words “efficiency” and “innovation” with government as much as they do the word “aromatic” with petting zoos.
Politicians’ pronouncements to address government waste have made headlines through the years with little follow-through. However, the Trump administration is giving new hope to Americans eager to see Washington embrace policy innovations and new efficiencies, to which the city has long been allergic.
President Trump’s groundbreaking frameworks to support cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence are not mere window dressing. They are foundational components of a strategy to build America’s future in a smarter, cheaper, better way. A prime and early example of this comes courtesy of the enormously wasteful and archaic Medicaid program, upon which Mr. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act is forcing an entire makeover.
The same Democrats who called it “savings” when they slashed hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare to pass Obamacare — and repeated the feat just three years ago for President Biden’s fraudulently named Inflation Reduction Act — spent weeks hyperventilating and demagoguing Mr. Trump’s $800 billion reduction in projected Medicaid costs over the next 10 years. The difference, of course, is that the Democrats doubled down on waste and government bloat while the Trump plan does the opposite.
Democrats gleefully spent cuts to Medicare on a liberal wish list of items such as green energy subsidies and Obamacare benefits. Mr. Trump’s plan targets the Medicaid fraud that has long plagued the program, accelerated because of Mr. Biden’s easy enrollment policies during the COVID-19 emergency. Booting out the people who don’t qualify and instituting requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients to work, while limiting overpayments to hospitals whose profits have skyrocketed over the past four years, will go an enormous distance in helping the program achieve its savings goal.
However, goals without an executable plan of action amount to little more than a stiff breeze, which is where Mr. Trump’s embrace of innovation proves most valuable.
Unlike his predecessor, Mr. Trump is promoting the use of companies that are helping reform the private health care market through AI and other leading data technologies. These advanced tools work to streamline many of the administrative and record-keeping tasks that eat up time and resources for providers, costs invariably billed to consumers and taxpayers. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is now encouraging state Medicaid agencies to seek out private companies in the tech sector that can streamline their services and monitor enrollment eligibility, as well as payments to providers such as hospitals and clinics.
Epic, for instance, is a highly regarded electronic hospital records company whose CEO has communicated with administration department heads to coordinate and expand the use of today’s technologies. Its specialty is creating realistic models where health care becomes much more efficient, leading to cost savings and better care.
Another leading company, Unite Us, has been laser-focused on building centralized, data-driven models to replace the fragmented, insufficient and obsolete health care management tools that sadly still widely populate the landscape. Its success with agencies on the state and local levels has led to significant cost savings and other efficiencies that lessen the burden of providing patient care.
Unite Us has delivered on helping states such as Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio save millions of dollars on Medicaid, creating a blueprint for other states to use their share of the $50 billion rural health fund intended to assist recipients in remote areas. These beneficial private-public partnerships are absolutely critical if our nation is to ever get serious about fixing our dangerous level of debt or stop the onslaught of bureaucratic red tape and its exorbitant costs to consumers and taxpayers.
Americans should be heartened that our $6 trillion federal government is finally courting technology instead of fighting it. Unlike government, private entities such as Epic and Unite Us must deliver value and be soundly managed to survive in a cutthroat business environment. That’s a concern the government never has to face. Our businessman president aims to bring innovation that works in the private sector to government, and for America’s fiscal and bodily health, we should root strongly for his success.
• Gerard Scimeca is a lawyer and chairman of Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, a nonprofit free-market-oriented consumer organization he co-founded.
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