United States editorial roundup: Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

The Washington Post

Aug. 16

Mohammed bin Salman and Saudi brutality

Salma al-Shehab, the mother of two young children, was studying for a PhD at the University of Leeds and took time off to go home to Saudi Arabia for a vacation. Ms. Shehab is a Shiite Muslim, a persecuted minority in the kingdom, and a women's rights activist who spoke out on social media for the right of women to drive. Her vacation ended in prison.

Saudi authorities detained Ms. Shehab in January 2021 and subsequently sentenced her to six years in prison for using social media to "disturb public order and destabilize the security and stability of the state." On Twitter, she had demanded freedom for Loujain al-Hathloul, who campaigned for women's right to drive and was incarcerated and tortured for it. In her appeal, Ms. Shehab noted that she used her real name on social media, had a peaceful background, posted photos of her children and had relatively few (2,000) followers, so how could she pose a security risk? She complained of being held in solitary confinement for 285 days. In response, prosecutors argued that she should be charged simultaneously under the kingdom's counterterrorism laws and under its cybercrime statute. On Aug. 8, the court delivered an especially draconian sentence: 34 years in prison and then 34 years of travel restriction. According to the Freedom Initiative, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, this is the longest known sentence for a women's rights activist in Saudi Arabia.

The case offers yet another glimpse at the brutal underside of the Saudi dictatorship under its crown prince and de facto head of state, Mohammed bin Salman, whose hit team assassinated Post Opinions contributor Jamal Khashoggi nearly four years ago. The crown prince, known as MBS, has been eager to portray himself as a modernizer, lavishing Saudi wealth on an international golf tour and promoting a utopian city to be built in the desert. In February 2021, Ms. Hathloul was released after nearly three years in prison but is still under travel restrictions, one of the Saudi ruler's many pernicious punishments.

When President Biden visited Saudi Arabia last month and fist-bumped MBS, the White House said he "raised specific cases of concern" about human rights, including "the egregious murder of Jamal Khashoggi." The president "received commitments with respect to reforms and institutional safeguards in place to guard against any such conduct in the future." Now the crown prince shows exactly what safeguards were in place: none. The Saudi promises to Mr. Biden were a farce.

At the very least, Mr. Biden must now speak out forcefully and demand that Ms. Shehab be released and allowed to return to her sons, 4 and 6 years old, in the United Kingdom, and to resume her studies there. Golf fans and hosts of the upcoming Saudi-backed LIV golf events in Boston, Chicago and Miami should protest Ms. Shehab's cruel treatment. In the Saudi kingdom, the crown prince commands fear and silence. But in open societies, his ruthless behavior must be denounced at every opportunity.

The Wall Street Journal

Aug. 14

Government subsidizing health coverage

The Health and Human Services Department recently made news with a report touting that "National Uninsured Rate Reaches All-Time Low in Early 2022." Sounds encouraging, but look beneath the covers and what you find is a quiet but enormous shift from private to government-subsidized coverage.

HHS estimates there are 5.2 million fewer uninsured Americans than in 2020. Yet Medicaid rolls during the pandemic have swelled by 24 million - a 34% increase - while two million more adults have enrolled in ObamaCare exchange plans.

Why are so many more people on Medicaid when the U.S. unemployment rate has reached a near-record low? A large part of the answer: The Families First Coronavirus Relief Act from March 2020 barred states from removing people who become ineligible from their Medicaid rolls for the duration of the public-health emergency in return for a bump in federal funding.

If not for Mr. Biden's recurring emergency declaration, about 20 million Medicaid enrollees would no longer be eligible, most because their incomes exceed the threshold for qualifying. Many could now get coverage through their employers, but why pay insurance premiums when Medicaid is "free"?

Taxpayers are thus getting slammed with a huge surprise medical bill. Annual Medicaid spending has increased by $198 billion during the pandemic. That's about as much as Medicaid spending grew from 2012 to 2019 during the first seven years of the ObamaCare expansion. As long as the Biden Administration continues the public-health emergency - now set to end on Oct. 13 - the taxpayer Medicaid tab will continue to grow. And what are the odds the Administration won't renew the emergency again before the election?

The other explanation for the government insurance takeover is Democrats' expansion of ObamaCare exchange subsidies in March 2021. As a result, millions of Americans pay no premiums, and households making more than 400% of the poverty line receive generous subsidies. The Congressional Budget Office initially estimated the two-year subsidy expansion would cost $22 billion. Actual cost: $50 billion.

More Americans enrolled in the exchanges than CBO predicted, and insurers have taken advantage of the sweetened subsidies by raising premiums. Yet CBO bizarrely forecasts that the Schumer-Manchin bill's three-year subsidy extension will cost a mere $33 billion.

How does CBO figure that three years of subsidies will cost 34% less than two years? Maybe it expects health care spending to fall as the pandemic recedes, but insurers are now raising premiums to cover COVID-19 treatments they expect the feds to stop paying for.

By the way, CBO doesn't account for the Administration's proposed regulation to fix ObamaCare's so-called family glitch, which limited exchange eligibility for many individuals offered family coverage through their employers. The Administration estimates the change could make an additional five million Americans who currently have access to employer coverage eligible for more generous subsidies on the ObamaCare exchanges.

The Administration appears to want to drive more people into Medicaid and tightly regulated ObamaCare plans, and thus make more Americans dependent on government for health care. Government also subsidizes employer coverage through the health care tax deduction, but this is significantly less expensive for taxpayers.

Annual Medicaid and ObamaCare spending has increased by about $230 billion during the pandemic, which comes out to about $44,000 per newly insured American. Alas, taxpayers can't challenge this overcharge.