Remember how President Obama, back when he was selling Obamacare to the public, oleaginously assured that his plan would expand health care access to the millions?  And how he pooh-poohed the Republican claim that such socialized medicine would result in long waiting lines, same as those seen in every other socialized-medicine country?

Turns out the waiting lists are there, and it's the sickest people – those who require home care or institutionalization – who are waiting longest.  In fact, according to a new report from the Foundation for Government Accountability, at least 21,904 have died, waiting in line, victims of Obama's Medicaid expansion, which prioritized quantities of people on the rolls over a neediest-first policy.  According to Pajamas Media's Tyler O'Neil:

At least 21,000 needy people have died while waiting for Medicaid coverage, while 13 million able-bodied adults received coverage from Medicaid in the states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, an explosive new study revealed Tuesday.  At least 247,295 people are currently on waiting lists to enroll in Medicaid.

The study, published by the Foundation for Government Accountability, revealed that when Obamacare enabled states to vastly expand Medicaid, it resulted in mismanagement, depriving the most needy and rewarding the able-bodied.

Central planning has always been about getting big numbers – quantity over quality.  It was that way in the Soviet Union, with its emphasis on production for "the masses," and it's that way with Obamacare.  That there is anyone still waiting for care on these lists – and the report describes these people as ones with traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, severe intellectual disabilities, and mental illness – is scandalous.  Those are the ones the full political spectrum supports care for.  There is always room in a free-market system for help for people who cannot help themselves.

That the Big State and the Obama programs that created it are falling down on the job in this matter highlights the lack of political muscle these truly powerless people have.  The report is vague on who's able-bodied, given that able-bodied people can still get heart problems or cancer.  But there's no excuse for abandoning the helpless with no political lobbies.

Republicans should make an issue of this mismanagement of priorities – and use these figures as one more nail in the coffin to end the nightmare of Obamacare and all its Medicaid add-ons as soon as possible.