From Paragon Health:
Medicaid enrollment and spending exploded during the pandemic as Congress passed legislation that boosted the federal government’s share of Medicaid costs in exchange for states keeping everyone enrolled, even when they were no longer eligible. Now 15 million or more people who are ineligible are enrolled in Medicaid. The federal spending boost, which is highly inflationary, and the Medicaid enrollment requirements persist with the official public health emergency.
Covid was the excuse to pass out free money and set the groundwork for Build Back Better, that would have been the biggest expansion of the welfare state since LBJ. At some point so much money had been handed out additional handouts seemed like monopoly money.