来源：《华尔街日报》
原文见刊日期：2022年6月4日
The economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic has been remarkable. April’s unemployment rates were at record lows in 17 states, and Friday’s labor report said the economy created 390,000 net new jobs in May. Yet America’s Medicaid program is suffering from long Covid.
新冠肺炎大流行后的经济复苏令人瞩目。美国17个州4月份的失业率创历史新低。星期五公布的就业报告说，5月份美国经济净新增39万个就业岗位。然而，美国的医疗补助计划正遭受长期新冠肺炎的困扰。
In one of its 2020 aid bills, Congress temporarily boosted the federal government’s Medicaid contribution. As a condition to receive the extra money, states can’t disenroll Medicaid beneficiaries who become ineligible—only those who die, opt out or leave the state. This restriction lasts until the end of the official Public Health Emergency.
在其2020年援助法案中，国会暂时提高了联邦政府对医疗补助的出资额。作为获得额外资金的条件，各州不能取消不再符合资格的医疗补助受益人的资格——死亡、退出或离开该州的情况除外。这一限制持续到官方公共卫生紧急状态结束。
For now that’s mid-July, but news reports say the Biden Administration plans another extension, and it also has promised to give states 60 days notice. That might mean October at the earliest. By then, according to an estimate from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), “states will have an estimated 98 million Medicaid enrollees, including as many as 23 million people no longer eligible.”
目前的公共卫生紧急状态结束日期是7月中旬，但新闻报道称，拜登政府计划再次延期，并承诺给各州60天的通知。这意味着紧急状态最早也要到10月份结束。到那时，根据政府问责基金会(FGA)的估计，“各州将有大约9800万医疗补助参保人，其中包括多达2300万不再符合资格的人。”
As with other makeshift pandemic assistance, the media will focus on hardship cases. But the emergency has to stop sometime, and an economy with a 3.6% jobless rate is a good time to do it. The Labor Department also said this week there were 11.4 million job openings in April, with only about half that many available workers.
与取消其他临时流行病援助一样，媒体将把重点放在困难案例上。但这种紧急情况总有停止的时候，而失业率低至3.6%的经济正是这样做的好时机。美国劳工部本周还表示，4月份有1140万个职位空缺，但只有大约一半的可用劳动力。
Congress is free to make easier Medicaid eligibility rules permanent if it can find the votes, and the White House is free to argue for that. But an interminable emergency is bad policy, and dishonest as well, since the Medicaid change was passed to be temporary.
如果国会能够选票通过，它可以自由地使门槛更地的医疗补助资格永久化，白宫也可以自由地为此进行辩论。但无休止的紧急情况是一项糟糕的政策，也是不诚实的，因为当初通过对医疗补助制度的修改就明确是暂时性的。
Since the federal Covid bonus vanishes with the emergency, states better be ready to make that transition. One question is whether Governors with tight labor markets will decide not to wait. At some point the extra federal Covid money under Medicaid might not be enough to cover the cost of carrying people who are ineligible but who can’t be removed from the rolls.
由于联邦疫情补贴金随着紧急情况的结束而取消，各州最好做好过渡的准备。一个问题是，面对紧俏的劳动力市场，州长们是否会决定不再等待。在某个时刻，医疗补助计划下额外的联邦资金可能不足以支付那些不符合资格但不能从名单中删除的人的保险费用。
By October, “ineligible enrollees will cost taxpayers nearly $16 billion per month,” the FGA predicts, “with states picking up nearly $6 billion of those costs when the public health emergency ends.” State officials would be wise to think through what to do next, and remember that every dollar spent on an ineligible Medicaid beneficiary is a dollar that’s not spent on other priorities, including the most needy.
到10月，“不符合资格的参保者每月将花费纳税人近160亿美元，”FGA预测，“当公共卫生紧急状况结束时，各州将承担其中近60亿美元。”州政府官员明智的做法是考虑下一步该做什么，并记住，花在不符合资格的医疗补助受益人身上的每一美元，都没有花在其他优先事项上，包括最贫困的人。