June 21, 2011 3:26PM # ObamaCare’s Latest ‘Glitch’: Medicaid for Millions of Middle-Class Retirees By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE Remember how [ObamaCare](https://www.cato.org/bad-medicine/) [inadvertently](http://coburn.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=045cebde-13b7-40d6-b5d5-2fddbdc64704) [kicked members of Congress out of their health insurance plans](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/us/politics/13health.html)? (Just kidding! The Obama administration [ignored](http://coburn.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=045cebde-13b7-40d6-b5d5-2fddbdc64704) that part of the law!) Well, today we [learned](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110621/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_health_overhaul_glitch_2) that ObamaCare also inadvertently gives free health care to millions of middle-class Social Security recipients: > President Barack Obama’s health care law would let several million middle-class people get nearly free insurance meant for the poor, a twist government number crunchers say they discovered only after the complex bill was signed. > > > The change would affect early retirees: A married couple could have an annual income of about $64,000 and still get Medicaid, said officials who make long-range cost estimates for the Health and Human Services department. > > > Up to 3 million people could qualify for Medicaid in 2014 as a result of the anomaly. That’s because, in a major change from today, most of their Social Security benefits would no longer be counted as income for determining eligibility. > > > Medicare chief actuary Richard Foster says the situation keeps him up at night. > > > “I don’t generally comment on the pros or cons of policy, but that just doesn’t make sense,” Foster said during a question-and-answer session at a recent professional society meeting. It’s almost like allowing middle-class people to qualify for food stamps, he suggested. What other surprises lurk in ObamaCare’s 2,000-plus pages? Kudos to Rick Foster and the *Associated Press*’s Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldivar. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).