Kiss Medicaid Goodbye.
States Rein In Health Costs
Legislatures are looking to cut Medicaid or add fees. Missouri is poised to end the program, which many of the poor rely upon for care.
SIKESTON, Mo. — Hundreds of thousands of poor people across the nation will lose their state-subsidized health insurance in the coming months as legislators scramble to hold down the enormous — and ever-escalating — cost of Medicaid.
Here in impoverished southeast Missouri, nurses at a family health clinic stash drug samples for patients they know won't be able to afford their prescriptions after their coverage is eliminated this summer. Doctors try to comfort waitresses, sales clerks and others who will soon lose coverage for medical, dental and mental healthcare.
"I don't know what cure to offer them," Dr. Hameed Khaja said.
Lawmakers say they feel for those who will lose coverage. But they say also that they have no alternative.
Prenatal checkups, care in nursing homes and other health services for the poor and disabled account for more than 25% of total spending in many states. Medicaid is often a state's single biggest budget item, more expensive even than K-12 education. And the price of services, especially prescription drugs and skilled nursing for the elderly, continues to soar.
The federal government helps pay for Medicaid, but in the coming fiscal year, the federal contribution will drop by more than $1 billion because of changes in the cost-share formula. President Bush has warned of far deeper cuts to come; he aims to reduce federal spending on Medicaid by as much as $40 billion over the next decade.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-medicaid24apr24,0,3416218.story?coll=la-home-headlines
----You want an alternative...?..TRY THIS...QUIT STEALING TAX PAYERS MONEY AND LOSING IT INTO NOWHERE. The 9 BILLION missing in Iraq would come in very handy right now...but no, its just...gone...Poof. Hope yalls babies don't get sick.---
Legislatures are looking to cut Medicaid or add fees. Missouri is poised to end the program, which many of the poor rely upon for care.
SIKESTON, Mo. — Hundreds of thousands of poor people across the nation will lose their state-subsidized health insurance in the coming months as legislators scramble to hold down the enormous — and ever-escalating — cost of Medicaid.
Here in impoverished southeast Missouri, nurses at a family health clinic stash drug samples for patients they know won't be able to afford their prescriptions after their coverage is eliminated this summer. Doctors try to comfort waitresses, sales clerks and others who will soon lose coverage for medical, dental and mental healthcare.
"I don't know what cure to offer them," Dr. Hameed Khaja said.
Lawmakers say they feel for those who will lose coverage. But they say also that they have no alternative.
Prenatal checkups, care in nursing homes and other health services for the poor and disabled account for more than 25% of total spending in many states. Medicaid is often a state's single biggest budget item, more expensive even than K-12 education. And the price of services, especially prescription drugs and skilled nursing for the elderly, continues to soar.
The federal government helps pay for Medicaid, but in the coming fiscal year, the federal contribution will drop by more than $1 billion because of changes in the cost-share formula. President Bush has warned of far deeper cuts to come; he aims to reduce federal spending on Medicaid by as much as $40 billion over the next decade.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-medicaid24apr24,0,3416218.story?coll=la-home-headlines
----You want an alternative...?..TRY THIS...QUIT STEALING TAX PAYERS MONEY AND LOSING IT INTO NOWHERE. The 9 BILLION missing in Iraq would come in very handy right now...but no, its just...gone...Poof. Hope yalls babies don't get sick.---
posted by Christy at 12:20 PM
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