New Undercover Sting Exposes Medicaid Workers
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
While the country reels under a massive burden of debt, a new undercover video by filmmaker James O'Keefe shows government waste in action as federal employees coach two men who describe themselves as Russian drug smugglers on how to qualify for Medicaid.
The Daily Caller is reporting that the new video, just released by O'Keefe, is the first of several in a new undercover sting that reveals how government workers assist people in defrauding a system that was set up to help poor people.
In the video, two men tell Ohio Medicaid workers that they are Russian immigrants who sell illegal drugs, drive a modified McLaren F1 sports car with a gold-coated engine, and use their underage sisters to perform sexual favors in exchange for drugs.
In response, government employees coach the men through the process of applying for benefits.
When asked whether they should mention owning the vehicle that retails for about $1 million, a Medicaid officer named Traci Daniels tells the men, “If it’s not something registered here, maybe I just wouldn’t mention it. Not that I can say that. You didn’t hear that from me. But, that would right there, that would throw him off. He would be immediately not qualified.”
She also tells them to describe their occupation as babysitters even though she knows they are drug dealers.
Even more outrageous is the clerks response when the men ask if there is a government health plan available that might cover abortions for their underage sisters who they say get pregnant often in their line of work. Without batting an eye, Daniels refers them to Planned Parenthood.
In another office in Madison County, a Medicaid worker named Robin Johnson told the two men that her office would not report illegal aliens to federal authorities. “Even if we run into people that are illegal aliens, it’s not like we report them to INS or anything,” Johnson said. “That’s not our purpose here.”
At the end of the video, four questions appear on a blank screen: “Are these employees doing anything wrong? Or are they doing what they are trained to do? What should we expect of an unaccountable state bureaucracy giving away federal dollars? It couldn’t get worse could it?”
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