Wednesday, April 27, 2011
The State of Florida is tackling an area of government that has been very contentious lately. Medicaid is a flawed system, no doubt, but should it be scrapped in favor of exclusive HMO's? The bill proposed by the Republicans would put all Medicaid patients in a for-profit HMO that would receive a pre-allocated budget from the state and federal government. The "pilot program" would significantly reduce governmental expenditures, however, many people would be left with less healthcare than Medicaid offered. Among those that would be exposed would be the elderly, because they are often in financial dire straits and in poor health that requires intensive care. Aside from the lack of care provided; the idea of a for-profit business profiting off the those with the inability to pay for their care is very alarming. The entire industry is based off the business benefiting from someone's sickness. This works when dealing with insured patients but I don't see how this could work with uninsured patients. Any suggestions?
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7 comments:
Unfortunately, that's all medical companies and drug companies are now, "for profit." Pretty much if they can benefit from someone else's suffering, they will. Clearly something needs to be done with Medicare, but making the poor elderly patients pay a crap-ton of money isn't the answer. I believe if we possibly look to other countries and how they've handled these issues, maybe we can find a viable solution.
I highly doubt anyone would be willing to actually do that, but possibly.
Medicare has nothing to do with this posting; I was discussing Medicaid.
I feel that any that involves medicaid that is for profit can only end poorly. The government should step in and do something about this issue.
I agree that medicaid for profit can only end poorly. The elderly cannot support themselves forever, especially when sick. Their children can step in and help, however, with this economy people can barely support themselves and their own families. Has anyone ever seen Michael Moore's film "Sicko"? If not, I suggest it to anyone. Opened my eyes a lot into the health care world.
Chris, I agree that privatization of health services is alarming to consider. When profit is the motive, care takes a back seat and some are considered “expendable.” The way it has been explained to me, Medicare is what elderly folks receive and Medicaid is for those who are lower income or disabled. In the case of Florida, I would imagine the state's primary cost (having a very significant elderly population) would be Medicare. Although, I don't know the breakdown of Medicare vs. Medicaid insured in that state. Regardless, Medicare doesn’t cover everything. And often we require the elderly to have a primary insurer with secondary Medicare coverage. This can become problematic when neither entity wishes to cover the cost of a hearing aid, for example. Recently, New Hampshire passed a law requiring insurers to cover all costs related to fitting someone with a hearing aid every five years (the primary visit, ordering the actual aid, fitting it, tune-ups, etc.). However, our State House received a call from a constituent who requested help because Medicaid does not cover hearing aids and his secondary insurer also refused. In a circumstance such as this, who advocates for the person? The sad reality is that this man would have to have the resources to hire an attorney to force the private insurance company to comply with NH state law and pay for the hearing aid (after he chipped-in his deductible amount). Just like your posting indicated, lots of people fall between the cracks. And your big question is – Do we find this acceptable as a society? I say no. And I think the situation would be much worse if Medicaid were done away with in favor of an HMO. Private companies are beholden only to stockholders. Government-run agencies are beholden to citizens. I think this is a structure we need to fight to maintain.
It truly is sad that any change in medicaid is so grim. It's not like the issue of healthcare coverage is something new that's taken people by surprise. But I do agree that change is necessary. Now if only there could be more coverage and less profit... that would make for strong progress in communities, states, and the like.
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