Alaska Legislature Being Held Over by Governor in an Attempt to Address 'Pet Projects'

When is too much too much?

Today, the Alaska Legislature is being held over by the governor in an attempt to force our representatives to address two of his “pet projects.”

These are (1) Medicaid expansion, and (2) increased educational funding.

Regarding Medicaid funding:

At this point, Alaska has approximately 160,000 citizens who are receiving Medicaid services. The current system is inculcated with fraud and abuse throughout. One example of this abuse is at ANMC where travel expenses are covered by Medicaid reimbursement. Last year alone there were 5900+ “no shows” for medical appointments even when travel was validated and expenses were paid. This is just one example of the fraud and abuse. The system is filled with these examples.

Medicaid reimbursement is paid at a higher rate than Medicare for the elderly and Tricare for veterans. Elderly citizens have been paying into Medicare their entire employed life, and veterans have paid with their service. Medicaid recipients have paid nothing for their coverage. Why should the elderly and veterans get in line behind single, young individuals fit for work who have paid nothing?

Additionally, within 2 years, the State of Alaska will be on the hook for 10% of the cost of Medicaid expansion. Where are we going to get the additional funds for the expansion of this program when the current budget is approximately $4 billion in the red? Within 2 years, we will have depleted our entire budget reserve and will be looking at various revenue enhancement sources to maintain the largess of government. It is extremely unwise to expand a program which will force us to incorporate additional taxes and fees to maintain this expansion.

Regarding Educational funding:

Alaska currently spends more than any state in the country for educational services and certainly more than most anywhere in the world. Currently we rank 39th overall in the nation. One must ask why we are not getting a better result. For many years, the Alaska legislature’s response was to simply throw more money at the educational system with the idea that more money would surely encourage a better outcome. It has not. Currently the overhead, to include a top heavy administration is over 52% of the total cost. One would think the bulk of money expended should go directly into the classroom. This is not the case.

Today, considerable pressure is being applied to the legislature through the Alaska Democrat Party and their support associations like Great Alaskan Schools to simply advance more money to fix the “broken window” instead of evaluating the root cause for the broken window of education.

NEA and the monopoly of Public Education has a substantial stranglehold on the educational services of Alaska even when other states all over the country are developing a variety of educational options which will give Alaskan students an even more difficult time competing with students of other states. Unfortunately, this monopoly is not for the advancement of educational excellence, but simply for force and control.

The system is generating one idea that in order to fix the discrepancy of education competition, we must throw more money at the existing system and develop a robust pre-school program. At some point in time, advocates of this concept will be recruiting their future students in the maternity wards in all the hospitals. It is as if children should have limited contact with their parent units in order to progress in their new “educational model.”

What to do? Please take the time to write all your legislators immediately that they “stop the excessive bleeding.” At some point in time we must say enough is certainly enough. I would suggest that this time has come as we are OUT OF MONEY!

Contact your legislators by writing to them at:

[email protected]

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Michael Chambers is a political activist who is the Chair of the Alaska Libertarian Party and the Chair of United for Liberty which is the largest umbrella organization for liberty and less government citizens in Alaska.