I think that the editors at Bloomberg are wrong. They think it would be relatively easy to extend various public benefits to all of those eligible:
Taken together, those three small changes — repetition, simplification and disclosure of potential benefits — persuaded 31 percent more eligible tax filers to claim the earned income tax credit. If the same changes were made nationwide, they could provide tax credits for millions more needy families.
It stands to reason that smarter messaging could also increase sign-ups for other social programs — even Obamacare, which has struggled to persuade most of those who qualify for subsidized insurance to buy it.
The world is not linear. The experience in every developed country has been that bringing each additional cohort within any plan has been more difficult than the one before. At some point the return on investment is just too low.
For example, 30 to 40% of the chronically homeless are mentally ill. It doesn’t seem likely that repetition, simplification, or disclosure will be enough to reach them with the benefits for which they are eligible.
