Which is a good thing.
"It is not unlike a payday loan, with a quick influx of cash and a large obligation to follow."
And here the government is always warning us about those!
"Oregon’s bid to cut spending on Medicaid could be model" by Sarah Kliff | Washington Post, January 27, 2013
PORTLAND, Ore. — In 2011, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber faced a vexing problem: The state had a $2 billion hole in its Medicaid budget and no good way to fill it.
He could cut doctors’ pay by 40 percent, but that might lead to them quitting Medicaid altogether. He could drop patients or benefits, but that would only compound costs in the long run. A former emergency room doctor, Kitzhaber remembers culling the Medicaid rolls in the 1980s, when he served as a state senator.
‘‘When I went back home, and went back to the emergency department, I saw a couple of people who came in who lost coverage under that decision,’’ he said. ‘‘One of them was a guy who had had a massive stroke. These people don’t disappear.’’
So Kitzhaber did something that many before him have done in desperate times. The Democratic governor who favors cowboy boots rather than dress shoes made a bet that Oregon could not afford to lose.
Aren't you glad they are gambling on your health with today's paycheck? Is this really what America has come to?
The deal Kitzhaber struck was this: The Obama administration would give the state $1.9 billion during five years — enough to patch the budget hole.
The catch: To secure that, Oregon’s Medicaid program must grow at a rate that is 2 percent slower than the rest of the country, ultimately generating $11 billion savings during the next decade. If it fails, those federal dollars disappear.
Oregon is pursuing the Holy Grail in health care policy: slower cost growth. If it succeeds, it could set a course for the nation at a pivotal moment for the Affordable Care Act....
As Oregon’s population grows, the state has come to realize that Medicaid is not a bottomless bucket of money....
Why would they have thought it was?
Under the new deal, Oregon does not get a lump-sum payment. Instead, the federal government doles out $1.9 billion during five years.
If the state cannot deliver cost savings up front, while hitting certain quality metrics, it is cut off. The money it needs to keep doctor salaries stable and patients’ benefits covered dries up.
‘‘In terms of cost-control experiments, the likes of this are something we have never seen in health care,’’ said John McConnell, a health policy researcher at Oregon Health & Science University who is studying the Oregon Medicaid waiver. ‘‘The natural questions are: Is it going to work? Is the state going to fix the budget? And if they do fix the budget, how are those savings accomplished?’’
Honestly, I wish they WOULD NOT EXPERIMENT with the HEALTH COVERAGE even if they are experimenting on us every time the use a needle.
As Kitzhaber sees it, failure is not an option. The state’s Medicaid program needs $1.9 billion to make ends meet now, even if it means paying big dividends back to the US government later. It is not unlike a payday loan, with a quick influx of cash and a large obligation to follow.
‘‘There’s no more money,’’ Kitzhaber said. ‘‘This is one where you really have to change how you do business in order to survive.’’
Then why is this government looking to raise taxes and levy new ones all over the place, because the American people have no more money!! That should be obvious in the horrible retailer results this Christmas (I don't care how loudly the Globe hollered everything was fine this holiday season), as well as the fact that the economy contracted in the fourth quarter.
And please don't blame Sandy or spew some other excuse for the failing economy. It's structural, and it's too far gone. Too many jobs shipped offshore and overseas.
Oregon has a long history of leadership when it comes to the Medicaid program....
Translation: they have been a guinea pig for experimentation.
--more--"
Also see: National Health Care: Mossad Milking Medicare
