You poor people have to stop getting sick so that insurance companies can gouge you.
Meet the future, America:
"Medicaid cost crisis looms for Bay State; Budget is pushed to brink as more enroll in program" by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff / January 3, 2011
The money, it seems, is never enough.
Governor Deval Patrick approved a record $9.6 billion last July for the state’s health insurance program for the poor — sufficient, he assumed, to last a year. But the program’s costs quickly outpaced expectations, forcing the governor to approve an additional $329 million in October and then seek $258 million more, which lawmakers approved last week.
And even that may not last, with six months remaining in the budget year.
The ballooning cost of Medicaid is one of the biggest challenges facing Massachusetts and other states, which have seen demand for the program jump during the recession as increasing numbers of unemployed residents enroll in the subsidized insurance plan.
With Massachusetts confronting an estimated $1.5 billion shortfall in the coming budget year, Patrick has said he is committed to financing the program, known as MassHealth. But he has acknowledged that it cannot continue to grow at this rate.
“Containing growth in our health care costs, particularly MassHealth, is something we absolutely need to do, because it is unsustainable at the rate that it’s been growing,’’ said Jay Gonzalez, Patrick’s budget chief.
The choices confronting the governor, however, are hard.
Yes, banks, corporations, and well-connected friends and interests must take precedence.
Massachusetts last summer slashed dental benefits for MassHealth recipients, forcing hundreds of thousands of poor, elderly, and disabled residents to visit community health centers, instead of their regular dentists, for fillings, root canals, dentures, and other routine procedures. Bigger cuts or restrictions loom.
Arizona recently made national headlines when it stopped financing certain organ transplant operations under its Medicaid program. Wisconsin stopped paying for caesarean sections unless they were deemed medically necessary. In Texas, Governor Rick Perry has entertained the idea of abolishing the state’s Medicaid program entirely.
Patrick, who is set to unveil his latest budget plan later this month, has not said what steps he will take to control Medicaid costs, but further cuts are all but certain....
Related:
Massachusetts Sales Tax Swindle
See where your increased sales taxes are going, Bay-Stater?
The state is also being pushed by Washington, which is cutting back its support.
I notice wars, banks, corporations, Israel, and lavish political lifestyles are about the only thing they fund now.
The federal government, which had been paying 62 percent of the state’s Medicaid costs as part of the stimulus program, will pay only 50 percent when the program ends this July.
Richard T. Moore, an Uxbridge Democrat [and] Senate chairman of the Legislature’s Committee on Health Care Financing, said “We really have to be looking at what we can do to rein in costs, and it may mean some curtailment of health care services that may not be critically needed.’’
Looks and smells like RATIONING to ME!
Government and corporations deciding who will live and who will die, as it has always been -- even here in the liberal fascist state of Massachusetts.
Harriett L. Stanley, House chairwoman of the committee, said if the state is serious about controlling Medicaid costs, it will require standing up to advocates for the poor, elderly, and disabled, who have long opposed attempts to cut benefits or move recipients into managed care....
Yeah, they are a REAL TOUGH LOT, that crowd!
Yeah, the state is being bullied by them.
Welcome to the Bizarro world of Massachusetts politics.
So when are YOU going to start STANDING UP to USURIOUS and FRAUDULENT BANKS, lady?
--more--"
