Architect of massive Medicaid cut never paid back own PPP loan: report

A key strategist behind Republicans' push to cut over half a trillion dollars from Medicaid by imposing new supposed anti-fraud controls has himself benefited massively from a federal program with virtually no oversight, Politico reported on Tuesday evening.

"Brian Blase is president of Paragon Health Institute, which has taken on a high-profile role in the effort in Congress to slash Medicaid costs through work requirements and other reforms," said the report. Blase has previously "called Medicaid America’s 'most flawed' entitlement program while advocating for changes that would reduce spending on the program by hundreds of billions of dollars."

However, per the report, Blase accepted over $20,000 in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, the controversial COVID-19 relief program that paid businesses forgivable loans to prevent layoffs during the height of the pandemic. The loan, made out to his consulting firm Blase Policy Strategies, LLC, was forgiven.

In response to the reporting, Blase maintained he followed all laws in accepting the money.

“Like millions of other Americans, I applied for a PPP loan as part of the shared national effort to keep the economy going during COVID,” he said. “I’m proud of the work that my Paragon team and I have done to expose how government programs often fail American patients, particularly the most vulnerable, and hard-working families.”

Republicans in the House passed around $600 billion in Medicaid cuts as part of President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill," largely by imposing harsh new work requirements on the program that could kick off millions of people, including some who already are working.

Senate Republicans are pushing for even larger cuts to the low-income public health insurance program, including new limits on how much states can receive in federal matching funds for their provider taxes — a move that even has some in their own caucus worried it could bankrupt rural hospitals around the country.