Is Medicaid Really "Intergenerational Welfare?"

In a recent speech, Kentucky Republican Senate Candidate Rand Paul said that Medicaid is “intergenerational welfare.” His stated rationale was that coverage has spread beyond those “truly in need” and citing the fact that 800,000 people out of Kentucky’s approximately 4.314 million citizens (18.5%) were on Medicaid. Given Kentucky’s Medicaid eligibility requirement—$13,671 in annual household income for family of 4 (62% of the federal poverty level)—I would say that has more to do with the income distribution in Kentucky.

I find Dr. Rand’s comments a bit hypocritical. This is coming from a candidate who is an ophthalmologist (an ophthalmologist who invented his own board certification, no less) and has 50% of his income coming from Medicaid and Medicare. This is the candidate who said in an interview on October 3, 2010 that he would cut Medicare benefits and raise the retirement age for Social Security in order to keep the full Bush-era tax cuts. So while depending on your perspective, I suppose you could consider this to be intergenerational welfare; I would maintain that it is, in fact, intergenerational war.