Mailbag: Wasted tax dollars: No on M101

Equal Time 101: In a Nov. 17 letter to Gov. Kate Brown, Oregon Health Authority (OHA) Director Pat Allen documented the myriad ways in which the agency tasked with managing Oregon's $9.3 billion Medicaid program has wasted or misallocated taxpayer dollars.

Oregon overpaid $74 million in federal funds to “dual eligible” enrollees who were old enough to qualify for Medicare and poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, Mr. Allen wrote. The OHA also incorrectly enrolled an undisclosed number of unauthorized immigrants in Medicaid, rather than in the state’s less expansive emergency health care program, costing taxpayers $25.7 million in “payment errors and over-claimed federal funds.”

The Oregon Secretary of State’s audit, released Nov. 29, found that 41 percent of Medicaid enrollees in a backlog of 115,200 recipients were in fact ineligible for the benefits they received.

Would you invest your money in such a business? Does this inspire you with confidence? Does it make you want to be taxed more? What they have done with federal money they will do with yours if you give them a 101 “blank check." That is what Measure 101 will do to you. For starters, a “yes” on Measure 101 will assess (tax) “certain hospitals” 0.7 percent, add 1.5 percent assessment on the Public Employees Benefit Board, managed care organizations, and insurers. You also will pay for local government and school health cost increases due to the insurance assessments.

Measure 101 will tax you to mismanage their Oregon sanctuary state utopian health care dreams.

Vote no.