Bush wants to push through the rule changes by the end of the year. Sunday's New York Times reports:
The White House says the changes are needed to ensure the "fiscal integrity" of Medicaid and to curb "excessive payments" to health care providers.
But the plan faces growing opposition. The National Governors Association said it "would impose a huge financial burden on states," already struggling with explosive growth in health costs. ...
In Missouri, Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican, said the change "could mean a loss of more than $84.9 million" for his state. That, he said, would "jeopardize the continuity of care for Medicaid recipients" and set back efforts to improve care in nursing homes.
3 comments:
When Blunt and the Republican legislature cut Missouri's medicaid rolls by 100,000 people they bragged about the savings and the need to cut the budget even though 60% of the money "saved" was Federal money that had nothng to do with the state budget. The Federal government spent that money on services for residents in other states. Ended up our state revenues were higher then the Republicans conveniently projected and the state cuts weren't needed for the state to maintain a comfortably balanced budget. Bottom line is that in order to save 40 cents in a budget that was very much in the black Missouri residents were forced gave up $1 in services but received no reduction in taxes.
It didn't bother the Governor when he and the Republican legislature took medicaid health care benefits away from poor children, the disabled and the elderly. Arouund 100,000 were cut including around 55,000 children. The Governor didn't just support these drastic cuts he proposed them and the pushed the cowardly Republican legislature to adopt the cuts. Now however when someone suggests cutting into the profits of the nursing homes and doctors who participate in the Medicaid program the Governor becomes morally outraged. What a bizarre set of values. Apparantly the Governor reserves his moral outrage for times in which someone with enough money to contribute big bucks to his reelection campaign are impacted.
It is outright fallacy to suggest that doctors are getting rich off of Medicaid. Thanks to cuts in reimbursement rates by the Bush Administration, and actions by the Blunt Administration to raise eligibility limits (which deny coverage to tens of thousands of Missourians), most Missouri doctors and dentists are only able to get 15 to 22 cents on the dollar for the services they provide to Medicaid patients. As a result, fewer and fewer doctors agree to accept Medicaid, which leaves increasing numbers of our fellow citizens with hospital emergency rooms as their only real option for health care services. And guess who ends up paying for that? We all do...
Post a Comment