Nevada Medicaid expansion a ‘roaring success’?

It is instructive that an essay claiming the huge expansion of Medicaid in Nevada has been “a roaring success” does not mention the cost (“Celebrating Medicaid’s birthday,” July 29 Review-Journal). The assumption must be that it doesn’t matter what it costs — after all, it’s just government money. Whatever it costs us, it is a “success.”

For two reasons, my heart is not full of gratitude to President Lyndon Johnson for signing Medicare and Medicaid into law. First, he imposed Medicare taxes on me involuntarily. I went onto Medicare this year after paying those taxes for more than half a century and am now discovering the “doughnut hole” and other things for which Medicare does not pay. Second, at about the same time, President Johnson forced me into the U.S. Army involuntarily. But at least I was initially paid almost $100 a month (less Medicare tax).

We need to start evaluating the success of government on some other basis than simply there is “more” of it.