Medicaid is the ultimate health care safety net for poor people.
The high cost of health services has put a lot of pressure on states (unlike Texas, etc.) that want to provide decent health care for poor people.
New York has a relatively generous Medicaid program, which naturally attracts opportunists -- both providers and clients -- who will skirt the law.
Several small business jobs-creator types allegedly stole Medicaid benefits, according to the Republican DA in Staten Island.
Details, below.
The New York Post story by Doug Auer linked above cites four well-off Staten Island couples who were charged with stealing five figures from Medicaid.
No. 1:
In the most blatant abuse of the system, Hanna Youssef, 61 and Zaka Youssef, 55, received more than $40,000 in Medicaid benefits since 2008, authorities allege.
However, an investigation uncovered that the couple has a gated home atop pricey Todt Hill worth $1.4 million; they own a strip mall on 350 Forest Ave. in West Brighton that nets more than $14,000 in monthly rent; and they recently sold a restaurant in Brooklyn for $700,000, authorities said.
No. 2:
Another couple -- Hany Mekhael, 41 and Jackline Farag, 37 -- owns four properties on Staten Island and a physical therapy business in Brooklyn, real estate assets valued at more than $2.1 million, but they fraudulently received $36,600 in Medicaid benefits since 2006, authorities claim.
The couple allegedly raked in the benefits while reporting an annual income of up to $174,000 per year.
No. 3:
A third couple, Richard Costa, 53 and Carrie Costa, 50, allegedly claimed they made a measly $400 week as day laborers on their 2008 application for Medicaid.
But, a year earlier they had allegedly purchased a $1 million home in Tottenville with a $360,000 down payment, authorities said.
And, he and his wife allegedly wheel around in two Mercedes-Benz sedans.
On the lease applications, Costa jotted down that he pulls down $250,000 a year as vice president of a Manhattan garment district company, authorities added.
No. 4:
Kathleen Trabulsi, 33 and Rashad Trabulsi, 34, allegedly had Medicaid shell out $30,000 in healthcare expenses since 2008.
Yet, the Trabulsis run a lucrative chiropractic clinic in Brooklyn, rest their heads inside a half-million dollar home on Dellwood Road in Old Town and a own rental property in Brooklyn, authorities allege.
They also drive top-end rides, including a Hummer, an Infiniti and an Audi, authorities claim.
This is just the prosecutors' side of the story, but usually there's some solid evidence to back that story up.
It seems that the indicted are small business job-creator types so beloved by the Republicans in Washington and Albany -- landlords, restaurateurs, physical therapists, chiropractors, and a garment center exec.
Evidently, they all could have afforded buying health insurance legally.
But it's so frightfully expensive they chose to cheat.
If we had a national single-payer health insurance program, this would not be a problem.
For anyone.