Healthcare Cuts Guarantee MORE Doctors' Doors Will Slam on Poor
By Cheryl Seal
Ask any person unfortunate enough to be dependent on Medicaid
and Medicare for their healthcare needs and they will tell you:
The number of doctors accepting patients is getting smaller
every year. The burnout rate among physicians who take patients
is astronomically high, because their patient load and waiting
list is staggering. The reason? The Medicare and Medicaid
programs' reimbursement to physicans is pitiful - cents on the
dollar.
In some rural states, Medicaid moms are forced to travel many
miles to get treatment from participating physicans. I know one
mother who had to regularly drive 75 miles to an orthopedic
specialist to treat her child's deformed legs. She was lucky -
she had a car. Many patients simply are forced to forgo needed
treatments or even routine checkups.
So now, the Republicans want to cut the Medicare and Medicaid
programs by $10 billion and claim that it won't hurt
beneficiaries. Their rationale? The cuts would be to the health
industry, not to patient benefits. But this means that
reimbursement to healthcare providers will be LESS and thus,
access to physicans taking Medicare and Medicaid reduced even
more.
This is an old corporate ploy - one that the Bush administration
and its NeoCon cohorts and Congressional henchman have used over
and over. It's like the promotion where you win a prize, but
then see in the fine print that the requirements for collecting
are so complicated and prohibitive that you can't cash in. But
it sure looks good for the corporation on paper!
The Bushies pulled the same thing with Veteran's benefits a few
years back. They claimed that the cuts to benefits weren't
really cuts. They just redistributed the funding "more
efficiently" so MORE vets could file claims. Well, they had more
claims workers, for sure - the lowest paid, least well trained
of the VA administrative food chain. But they cut back on case
workers - the people who actually handle the claims once they
have "processed". End result - the waiting time from filing a VA
claim to actually seeing any help went from about 6 months to
TWO YEARS. Now, I hear, it's even worse.
What will happen now re: Medicaid/Medicare is that fewer medical
bills will be submitted now because fewer doctors will take
these patients. So old folks and little kids can get a royal
screwing through the Bushies' scheme to help pay for the war,
tax cuts to the wealthy, and the outrageously poor disaster
planning at home.
Oh, yes, I almost forgotten to mention - the cuts are also
designed to INCREASE pharmaceutical industry profits, while, in
the long run, costing the government more money. A new "formula"
for reimbursing pharmacies is designed to push generic drugs out
of the Medicaid program and force pharmacists to dispense
higher-priced "brand name" drugs.
http://cherylsealreports.bravehost.com/
Background articles:
Healthcare Cuts Approved by Congress
from Reuters
Excerpt:
"The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday approved $10 billion in
Medicaid and Medicare savings as part of a broader effort by
congressional Republicans to trim spending and approve
additional tax cuts. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles
Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said the bill's savings would
affect the health industry and not beneficiaries. The bill,
approved by an 11-9 party line vote, would improve health care
access for children and low-income beneficiaries, he said."
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2005-10-25T231140Z_01_HO583409_RTRUKOC_0_US-CONGRESS-HEALTH.xml
FEWER DOCTORS THAN EVER BEFORE TAKE MEDICAID PATIENTS
From Cincinnati Enquirer:
Excerpt:
"Doctors warn that the trend is creating a two-class system
where the rich and well-insured get better doctors and
specialists. Everyone else - the poor and working-class families
with severely ill children - will struggle to find a doctor
willing to treat them and advocate on their behalf. "
http://www.enquirer.com/extremechoices/loc_extremehavenots.html
LOWBALLED: MEAGER REIMBURSEMENTS FROM STATE PROMPT DOCTORS TO
STOP SEEING MEDICAID PATIENTS
From Business Report
Excerpt:
"If we can't make enough money to meet our biggest expense,
which is our payroll, then we either have to let those people go
and not provide those services, or reimbursements are going to
have to increase so we can maintain those services." Dr. Thomas
Hansbrough
http://www.businessreport.com/newsDetail.cfm?aid=71