<p>The link to the NY Times article in Flossy’s post is AMAZING. Here are the first two paragraphs.</p>
<p>"WASHINGTON — Enrollment in Medicaid is 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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>Wow! As I have been saying for over a year, Obamacare is lousy insurance. What good is it if you have to wait months to see a doctor.</p>
<p>Good for the Times to produce an accurate (I assume) report. Now it’s on the states to fix the problem. I’m on an iPhone now and can’t look at the article, but did they look at whether states with privatized Medicaid are better or worse than other states?</p>
<p>I"m so glad that the NYTImes publised that article. My BIL is on medicaid and he has to drive over an hour to get to a Dr who takes Medicaid. Fortunately, he stil have a car or he wouldn’t be able to see any Dr. </p>
<p>That said, I don’t blame any Dr for not wanting to take Medicaid patients. The reimpursements rates aren’t high enough to pay of their med school loans. </p>
<p>Another casualty of Obamacare: Hospitals are increasingly requiring patients to pay upfront.</p>
<p>“The policies available on the Obamacare exchanges are hastening this trend. Many enrollees are opting for the bronze and silver plans, which often carry deductibles upwards of $5,000 and $2,000, respectively.”</p>
<p>“The bronze plans are scaring a lot of administrators because the patient liability is so large,” said Debra Lowe, administrative director of revenue cycle at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center. “Patients are unaware they have this high deductible.” </p>
<p>The law of unintended consequences is still in effect.</p>
<p>Oh CF I completely understand. The improvement for a nice poster group is morally preferable and absolutely worth the ‘unimprovement’ for another group. Sharing and distributing the malfunctions of a system across a different (and wider) group is certainly preferable when the newly ‘unimproved’ group can be painted as having been unfairly carried by an unfair system. Then one can stand on a mountain and declare the superiority of one’s position.</p>
<p>Yup, do not fear,I completely understand. </p>
<p>New game, new rules, new shenanigans…and so we go forth.</p>
<p>I’m waiting to see what happens when the Medicaid group starts complaining, Because if they can’t get good service, they will.complain. And, something is better than nothing probably won’t be well received.</p>
<ol>
<li> My grandson is on medicaid. He gets terrific service. Active kid. Broke his leg this year. This is a state/regional issue. Lots of variation, but the fault often lies with the states or can be an artifact of geography. (People who live in rural areas have fewer options). (And that’s exactly what the NY Times article says: tremendous variation among the states).</li>
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<p>2 The NY Times article says that many people on Medicaid encounter waits or have to travel to get medical service. Most of the newly enrolled weren’t previously eligible for Medicaid. So they are going from a situation of having nothing to a situation of having something, but their something falls short of ideal.</p>
<p>I don’t think this is a difficult concept or most people on the lower end of the economic spectrum. Their housing and transportation options tend not to be up to par either. It would be nice if it were better. But if someone has to wait 3 months to get a medical appointment, that 3 months is a whole lot better than “never.” </p>
<p>No, they go to the ER. And, they will continue to go to the ER. At least in the large inner city hospital with which I am familiar. Of course, I can’t go there or take my kids there because we would get a large bill. It’s a crazy situation and it’s not getting any better that I have noticed around here. When my kid broke his arm we once waited all night at the ER. It was $2,000. There are people there with colds. They pay nothing. Something is wrong.imho. </p>
<p>It is bizarre that the people that show so much concern about medicaid patients having to travel are against the medicaid expansion in the first place. </p>
<p>The lack of medicaid expansion is costing Billions and Billiions to the population in those states. Plus… The lack of health care…</p>
<p>If you really want more doctors covering more medicaid patients, you have to pay doctors more for medicaid patients. To do that, you have to raise taxes. So, we can see the posters that want a tax increase. Interesting group of people. </p>
<p>I just talked to this young girl for 30 minutes. She was denied ssi. You know…the program that has so much fraud in it that any healthy person can fake it and get ssi. </p>
<p>Well she did not fake it well. She was denied several years ago. Did I mention that she was born without an anus? She pooped out of her vagina. She has digestive issues. She has been in special education programs her whole life.
She did not get ssi. Our fiscal conservativism at work. She can’t get ssi, but people like Peter Thiel can have over $100 million in an ira and get a tax break of a few million a year. </p>
<p>This young person is out about $40,000 so far and she will never recover this money, but she has a couple of advocates working with her including her doctor on digestive issues. </p>
<p>I am hoping she gets ssi this year even though is it a government program and the government can’t do anything. </p>
<p>My update: I had my best month ever as a small business in August 2014, and September was almost as good. This is a pretty great job I created! I treasure the freedom that the opportunity to buy individual health insurance has brought me. How I wish I could have done it 10 years ago.</p>
<p>Like I’ve said before, my Medicaid experiences have been great. I am not on Medicaid now (employer-sponsored health insurance which I haven’t used yet), but I was from the rollout until Aug 31. Found a doctor very close to my house that was able to get me in very quickly. When I screwed up my foot, the after hours clinic took Medicaid and everything was covered. In and out in ~20 minutes. </p>
<p>Yes, obviously regions do vary. When I lived in more rural northern Michigan, even with excellent insurance, I had to wait months to get a routine doctor’s appt. Doctors don’t want to live in rural places. </p>
<p>@actingmt - you are correct - they go to the ER. My daughter works at two hospitals. One in the suburbs and the other in a more rural area. She routinely has patients come to the ER with problems that are quite minor but they are on Medicaid, so they won’t be paying for their visits to the ER. There is tremendous abuse of this system. Oh the stories I have heard…</p>
<p>On a related note, it would be helpful if there was a better system in place for triaging so that serious cases would get hte ER and the less serious would get some sort of simpler care (less serious meaning that the person isn’t in need of the high-tech resources that are available at an ER). I don’t know that I’m phrasing this right but when a kid falls from standing height and the parents think they should bring the child in ‘just to be sure’, that child does not need an ER. A simple once over by a doc would suffice. Or a bad cut doesn’t need an ER. but an amputation would. But most people just default to the ER even though it’s not always necessary. </p>
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