Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has decided that Medicaid money, intended for clinical services and medications for the poor, now can help the chronically homeless to find and maintain permanent housing.
Advocates for the homeless have welcomed the CMS move, which will allow states and localities to spend more on other services for the homeless, including the construction of more housing. Thus far, no opposition has surfaced to using Medicaid money this way.
Not that the federal government hasn’t been in the housing business for years, through a variety of programs. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development spent $1.8 billion for homeless services.
But one has to ask:
This mission creep does not appear to have been directly authorized by Congress. Rather it was implemented by executive fiat.
Does this program take from funds for clinical services and medications that the poor desperately need?
There’s so much going on in the bureaus of government that it’s impossible to keep up. This might or might not be a good program, but it’s just another example of the output the busy millions grind out that are hardly, ever noticed.
I’ll try to post other examples from time to time.
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