For Many New Medicaid Enrollees, Care Is Hard to Find, Report Says
By ROBERT PEAR
SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
WASHINGTON — Enrollment in Medicaidis surging as a result of the Affordable Care Act, but the Obama administration and state officials have done little to ensure that new beneficiaries have access to doctors after they get their Medicaid cards, federal investigators say in a new report.
The report, to be issued this week by the inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services, says state standards for access to care vary widely and are rarely enforced. As a result, it says, Medicaid patients often find that they must wait for months or travel long distances to see a doctor.
The inspector general, Daniel R. Levinson, said federal and state officials must do more to protect beneficiaries’ access to care, in view of the program’s rapid growth. Just since October, the administration says, eight million people with low incomes have enrolled. By 2016, the Congressional Budget Office estimates, one in four Americans will be on Medicaid at some time during the year.
Twenty-seven states have expanded Medicaid eligibility since the passage of the health care law in 2010, and President Obama is urging other states to do so.
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One in four Americans on Medicaid. Fifty million on food stamps.
ReplyDeleteYes, the progressives have followed their Marxist teachers well.
Of course the interesting thing here is doctors. If you look at the profession world wide, countries like Australia hire away good doctors educated in the UK, the UK hire doctors from countries like Nigeria, India and Pakistan.... god only knows where they get their doctors from. The point is that eventually countries like the US cannot create the demand for doctors to service its own population and as social medicine budgets continue to tighten, doctoring will eventually cease to be a viable profession for the amount of time and education required. The only logical ultimate step is assigning children career paths before they even leave primary school... but then again, isn't that what central planning is all about.
ReplyDeleteYes, such a perfect remedy. To each according to his/her needs, from each according to his/her abilities. A perfect Marxist utopian world.
DeleteObamacare stuck a fork in middle class health care.
William
DeleteThe quotation above is only a small part of a philosophy, it is however memorable because it resonated with everyone either left or right. In practice however, as with most extreme political thought, it is impracticable. The concept does not take into consideration human greed No matter what you may think; only Mother Teresa and Gandhi have demonstrated the philosophy you quote. Try for something original to push your point. You constantly try to build support for the Tea Party by knocking down the foundations of the Dems and what you appear to consider the centrists within the Republican Party. I and many others in Australia have trouble understanding exactly what it is your organization wants. We hear that your group have no official standing, no party constitution and a manifesto loosely based on the Bill of Rights. Membership of the Republican Party is falling because some of the more strident members on the right are shifting to the Tea Party group. I would have preferred to have sent this as a Private email but our group does not appear to facilitate such exchanges.
Cheers from Aussie
NB It would be appreciated if other contributors allow William the opportunity to respond to this rather than every one scoring meaningless and cheap political points.
We are not an organization king, we are but a movement. As expressed by ric we have lost to the down the line GOP and have no influence. Be that as it may we attract various libertarian, conservative, religious, and other factions to the basic truths from within. I reveal the poll above to display the magnetic pull of these truths and their proponents Cruz and Dr. Carson. How long it will take to overcome the terminal rot promoted by our two existing political parties is unknown. One thing is certain, another reformation is beginning to take shape dispite what shallow thinkers such as ric espouse. The reason for this you ask? The answer lies in what our founders bestowed us. Simple, if understandable by the shallow.
DeleteThe last sentence should read "Simple, if not understandable by the shallow."
DeleteOur founders bestowed on us a framework to develop a working government. Even Thomas Jefferson said
Delete" I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy."
"[The European] monarchs instead of wisely yielding to the gradual change of circumstances, of favoring progressive accommodation to progressive improvement, have clung to old abuses, entrenched themselves behind steady habits and obliged their subjects to seek through blood and violence rash and ruinous innovations which, had they been referred to the peaceful deliberations and collected wisdom of the nation, would have been put into acceptable and salutary forms. Let us follow no such examples nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable as another of taking care of itself and of ordering its own affairs. Let us... avail ourselves of our reason and experience to correct the crude essays of our first and unexperienced although wise, virtuous, and well-meaning councils."
William,as always my thanks and to rick could you please provide the source you quote for the words of Thomas Jefferson
DeleteThganks and cheers from Aussie
Apart from the shortsighted approach occasioned by political allegiance, it appears your system is failing for reasons other than government policy.
ReplyDeleteWe read reports here of the law suites alleging everything from assault to incompetence by doctors. We hear of batteries of tests carried out at great expense and with no clinical necessity because the doctor is afraid of being sued because he/she missed some obscure condition. I even read once that a patient brought a law suite against a hospital because his face was scarred after a bar room incident when a broken glass was shoved in his face.
I do not have the answers; I can however see that an attitude problem exists. Doctors are not super human, they do not always fix the problem, and sometimes they do not even see the problem. So many people present with a diagnosis in their minds because they have read s magazine with the latest nonsense proclaiming that a sore foot is a calcaneal spur or some such rubbish. The symptoms they relate to the doctor is what they want him to believe and as so often is the case, there is nothing more than a poorly fitting shoe as the culprit.
Your country is the most litigious in the world, Australia is catching up fast and I for one can only hope our authorities stamp out the odious practice of advertising for people with real or feigned conditions to provide under employed shyster lawyers with work.
I realize that pig headedness and political considerations will prevail but I do recommend you study the Australian system, it is not perfect but at least it is universal and no one in this country is unable to see a doctor or get a bed I the hospital.
Cheers from Aussie
King - We have been battling with the subject of tort reform for a very long time and it very much has a left/right element to it. It is also one of the many things that drives the cost of healthcare and business liability costs.
DeleteI was surprised to see when I came to the UK that the trend had become popular here... at the time there was a commercial for a no fee law firm operated with the slogan:
"Where there's a blame, There's a Claim"
I had a fender bender when I first got here... my fault. My car received not a scratch or a dent or a paint blemish that polishing compound didn't fix... the other guys car was totaled(even though I took pictures at the scene that showed otherwise) and both occupants got wipe-lash (on of them had a sister who worked at the NHS).
William "stuck a fork in middle class healthcare"? Middle class are not on Medicaid. That would be the poor. Lower middle class get subsidies to help them afford insurance. The rest we pay for insurance same as we always have. My benefits and premiums have not decreased/increased anymore since Obamacare then they did before. Why don't you try to understand the program before you shit on it. You only know what the biased talking heads are telling you.
ReplyDeleteSo you are saying that 25% are poor in America? One in four by 2016, the end of Obama's term.
DeleteWhat a wonderful legacy.
Explain precisely please, how the current results of a trend that has gone of for 30 years is Obama's legacy.
DeleteOh King SHHHH! They don't want to hear that universal word. But I agree it is the best fix for everyone.
ReplyDeleteMore shit spewed by the right. Medical wait times vary by region just like everything else. In most regions average wait times have in fact decreased
ReplyDeletehttp://www.merritthawkins.com/uploadedFiles/MerrittHawkings/Surveys/mha2014waitsurvPDF.pdf
Hundreds of Thousands Face Health Law Subsidy Deadline
DeleteAt Risk of Losing or Having to Pay Back Health Insurance Subsidies from Affordable Care Act
http://online.wsj.com/articles/hundreds-of-thousands-face-health-law-subsidy-deadline-1412006417
I'm sure they will be able to collect all the money they sent out to people on the honor system.
Delete"Collectively, more than 400,000 people who enrolled in health plans using HealthCare.gov have data-matching problems regarding their income or citizenship and immigration status.
Delete"There are a lot of people counting on their refund to pay for Christmas charges, and instead they'll be paying back their tax credit," said Timothy Jost, a professor of health law at Washington and Lee University."
"A report released in July by the Health and Human Services Department's office of inspector general found that the federal marketplace sent notices to applicants requesting additional documents to resolve inconsistencies, but lacked the system capability to process them and resolve the mismatches."
DeleteWhat a cluster f__k.