According to the AP, Medicaid covers prescriptions for "unapproved drugs." It is telling that Republican Senator Grassley is nitpicking on this waste of taxpayer money, which accounts for 2% of Medicaid prescription drug costs. Nevermind that Medicare, Medicaid, the FDA, indeed all of HHS, is a waste of taxpayer money precisely because it is involuntary redristribution of wealth (mostly from taxpayers to big pharma and bureaucrats).

The claim is that some or all of these drugs are unsafe. As opposed to the FDA-approved drugs? If the drugs are killing people, then someone is guilty of murder. But who? Doctors? Drug companies? FDA and Medicaid bureaucrats? Congressmen? The quote at the end of the article unintentionally makes a central point:

"We as Americans have a belief that all the prescription drugs that are available to us have been reviewed and approved by the FDA," said Manolakis, the pharmacist. "I think the presence of these drugs shows we have a false sense of security."

FDA approval does not mean a drug is safe, yet the presence of this approval mechanism leads patients to believe they are being protected.