Katrina's Medicaid Boondoggle

by Michael D. Tanner and Michael F. Cannon

Michael Tanner and Michael F. Cannon are coauthors of Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It (Cato Institute, 2005).

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina seems to be providing Congress with an all-purpose excuse to increase federal spending. The latest example is a $9 billion Medicaid expansion proposed by Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Max Baucus (D-MT), purportedly to help states pay for the costs associated with uninsured evacuees in the wake of the disaster.