The Great Obamacare-Medicaid Bait 'n' Switch
invite response
2015 Jan 14, 6:43pm 1,595 views 4 comments
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Bellingham Bill
2015 Jan 14, 9:36pm
Normally I'd type some knee-jerk response, but this piece is entirely true.
Now, medicaid is a total hand-out so at least nobody paid for it, plus the medicaid expansion doesn't even exist in these states:
https://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/8639-figure-2.png
and if you make $16,000 in a year you get promoted to subsidized PPO instead.
So like everything else, PPACA is better than what was before (i.e. EMTALA -based care) but didn't go far enough.
Medicaid expansion does cover people who show up in the ER and/or are admitted to hospitals, so that's a net benefit regardless of not how we're not allegedly paying private practice enough.
Journal entry, America circa 2015:
Medicaid Mary takes the triplets and pops in to get a quick free check up for that little twinge of heartburn and major gastroenteritis blow-out she got after cranking down a half pound bacon grease burger, a large fries, and a 48oz corn syrup drink with unlimited refills last night. The Doc says she's got to drop a 150 lbs and give up her two pack a day habit, but she just doesn't have the will power right now. She lights another one up as she cruises their escalade to the snapidy SNAP office, gabbing and texting all the way to her clone friends and sisters on her free cell phone. Now she's got to hurry to make her 2PM meeting at some other bullshit government office to pick-up her section 8 rent check or they could be out on the streets!
Tenpoundbass
2015 Jan 15, 8:09am
Most private-practice doctors literally care for Medicaid patients at a personal financial loss. Do that too much and you start not being able to practice at all, and that will hurt everyone.
Those are rare and rarer. Most clinics and doctors offices in South Florida are owned by a few industry giants, like Memorial Health and other national healthcare companies.
"Hey, are you one of the 9.7 million Americans who have been put onto the Medicaid rolls since 2013 mostly as a result of theAffordable Care Act?
Congratulations! But that and $2.75 will get you one ride on the New York City subway.
That's because finding a doctor who accepts Medicaid payments – never all that easy to do even before 2013 – is getting harder than ever thanks to a steep drop in reimbursement rates for doctors who treat patients on Medicaid.
When I say "steep," I mean it. We're talking an average of 43 percent nationwide and almost 60 percent in California. Incidentally, California has added 2.7 million more people to Medicaid since 2013.
The result is simple: more and more doctors are simply not accepting Medicaid patients and/or dropping the ones they already have.
And before you call those doctors greedy or evil, consider the alternative: Most private-practice doctors literally care for Medicaid patients at a personal financial loss. Do that too much and you start not being able to practice at all, and that will hurt everyone.
By the way, did you know it was illegal for doctors to write off giving people care for free or at a financial loss on their taxes? Well it is."
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102330644
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