Medicaid‑Funded Luxury Meals

California’s CalAIM lets Medi‑Cal beneficiaries receive home‑delivered, ‘medically tailored’ groceries — including organic produce, salmon, and beef — paid through Medicaid, with contractors billing thousands per recipient over months. The program has recurring re‑enrollment, industry contractors collecting large Medicaid sums, and reported per‑recipient costs exceeding $1,500 across 24 weeks. — If replicated or scaled, this design reshapes welfare politics, creates new rent opportunities for contractors, and forces tradeoffs between targeted health interventions and general affordability for middle‑income households.