Trump Wants to get rid of Medicaid

amother

Teal

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 11:01 am

SixOfWands wrote:

Actually, Medicaid doesn't have to pay for taxis. It pays for non-emergency medical transportation that has to be appropriate, but can include buses.

A strep test costs about $30, and its pretty standard to test all kids when one has it. To avoid a second visit.

The real question isn't why Medicaid pays for these basic services. Its why we live in a country where you can't afford them.

I can't afford it because I pay for everyone else's care!! I checked out our taxes... The amount that gets taken out yearly is crazy. Money that I could use easily to pay for things I need.

youngishbear

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 11:03 am

amother wrote:

Don't assume.
When DH had his accident we had to use the hospitals charity program where it was embarrassing- them analyzing our bank statements, income, tax returns, asking about bills and debts....

I have helped friends fill our Medicaid paperwork, went with them to the appointment and it wasn't so intense. Or demeaning.
So no, we won't get the $$ from somewhere. When we don't have it we don't have it. We went to charity.

Right. Because it wasn't your shame...

I disagree with you very strongly on this one. Medicaid is a handout. I don't see why asking for a specific charity is more degrading than a person needing charity for all their medical needs.

Again, I believe most normal human beings would prefer to be self-supporting, all else being equal. It's only when they see no other way (due to sincere inabliity, or emotional/mental issues) that they become dependent on support.

SixOfWands

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 11:11 am

amother wrote:

There's no real difference between my having to pay the hospital more money because they treated your husband at a reduced rate as charity, and my paying more taxes to assist others under the guise of Medicaid.

If you think those people don't deserve Medicaid, and should be turned away, then your husband should also have been turned away when he couldn't afford care.

Me, I think everyone deserves medical care.

amother

Cyan

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 11:19 am

Well dt is not a regular republican he's a rich one that has no idea how it feels to be poor enough to have to go to Medicaid for health. He's always had what he wanted so why should he even have an idea of how this works fir the underprivileged? So yes all of us that see this for what it is, what are we gonna do? Sit there and watch it all? Or wake everyone up to this and not allow this craziness?

Anyone that can speak up and stand up for the underprivileged is encouraged to speak up speak to your friends and family. This way something will get in the right direction.

ectomorph

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 11:20 am

SixOfWands wrote:

Sorry, Medicaid shouldn't be paying for things that a regular middle of the road insurance wouldn't.
No baby nurses or transportation.
There can be a separate program that determines need and does pay for those things. But it shouldn't come out of my healthcare bills.

I am paying 15,000 a year. Except if I have emergencies, the companies are making a killing off of me. If not for the tax for not having insurance, I should be paying out of pocket.

youngishbear

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 11:28 am

ectomorph wrote:

Who gets baby nurses? I can't believe I have never heard about this.

Transportation I have heard of, and I was also confused by the system, frankly.

amother

Scarlet

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 11:39 am

amother wrote:

Thank u to all posters that are finally getting it! I think this new healthcare bill in insanity! It will not solve anything. It will make people way more mad then Obama care. And to give to the rich from the poor is insanity. This all means that in order for my kids who are in specialized medical cases I would need to pay for insurance I simply can't afford and the insurance companies that are the rich will be getting my money that is the poor.

Rich will be getting money from the poor.

I think this is insanity

You are nuts. Rich will be getting money from the poor? Did you think the poor had money? No they were being given money it is not theirs! There is an entire huge middle class that feels as desperate as you feel now. And why? Because they fund this ridiculous medicaid program that you are freaking out you will not get anymore.

The medicaid program must change. Not be done away with but change. The answer Obama was let's give everyone these benefits but the system couldn't handle that and instead insurance companies raised prices and middle class suffered. I'd like to see if Trump is able to take a look at the system and run it more efficiently so that basic needs of poor people are covered, the aid is petered of slowly, andiddle class folks aren't left without medical care while poor folks are seeing the doctor and having babies without a care to the cost.

amother

Teal

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 11:42 am

youngishbear wrote:

Nothing to do with shame being mine or not, I meant the charity asked a whole lot more invasive questions. The forms were longer, more detailed, required more proof...
People don't see Medicaid as a charity. They see it as a free service by the government, like they don't pay firefighters or police per visit they don't pay for Medicaid. And once you get one program, you get SNAP, WIC etc much easier. I have to ask for each issue and go through it all again.
And I shouldn't have to! I pay for their care so much I could have bought better insurance. Or just put it in savings to pay when we had the medical bills.

These programs have a purpose. But we need a system to encourage people to get off. Gradual tapering off of benefits with income increases. And a way to stop abuse, misuse and fraud.

amother

Teal

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 11:47 am

SixOfWands wrote:

As I said, if I wasn't paying for others I would have had enough saved. I do try to save what I can. And I didn't get that much reduction but it was enough so we could scrape the rest together. Versus Medicaid where it is all "free" ( for them, not me) with no copay, deductible, co insurance....

Eta: plus it is in the hospitals discretion, based on their financial ability (no one forced them to give me any discount), their endowments and their supporters/donors. They aren't taxing you just because you exist and work and you can choose to go to another local hospital that doesn't have this charity program.

youngishbear

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 11:58 am

amother wrote:

The middle class's insolvency is absolutely outrageous. I just think your anger is misplaced. As 6ofw keeps pointing out, it's not that they get too much, it's that you get too little coverage.

And the ones laughing all the way to the bank are not the ones on Medicaid. Or their nurses, or their car service drivers.

It's a failure of capitalism. We can't have it both ways, or we need to be very creative to find a way to make it possible. If we want "the best doctors in the world", we need a profit incentive. Ditto for drug companies to invent new medication and insurance providers to want to be in this business.

But the little guy, the consumer, gets screwed over. Thanks to socialist progress, we don't have mass starvation or disease decimating the proletariat, which if you recall from history, led to violent uprisings, and on more than one ocassion, angry mobs killing and destroying the "one percenters". Social programs are a sort of inner defense system against revolution and chaos, and you know who would suffer most from those.

However if you look at the numbers, poverty is still a risk factor towards chronic disease and early death, even for those with access to government programs.

The bottom line is that we all agree we need to help the less fortunate. In this system, you are one of the less fortunate, even if you are not officially labeled as such - or perhaps precisely because of it. People like you need to get together and do something about it. The new law is unlikely to solve your problems (depending on specifics) and will possibly make them worse. Lobby your representatives. Form coalitions. Raise your voice. It is time for the middle class to stop considering themselves on the same team as the profiteers and fight like the progressives did for the poor a century ago.

nylon

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 12:39 pm

But the point is that Medicaid ISN'T regular insurance. It is a safety net for people with medical needs. You're thinking of just regular people who happen to get Medicaid and want a taxi, but what happens when a quadriplegic needs a special wheelchair transport to the doctor? Or they live in a rural area? There's no bus. Or insurance doesn't want to pay for home aides but someone on Medicaid is on an HCBS waiver to keep them out of a nursing home, so they get aides and home nursing. Remember, regular insurance doesn't pay for a nursing home either.

And the experiments with copays on Medicaid haven't shown results. The poorest people on Medicaid don't have $5 a visit. This is about "looking fair" because we all get unfairly nickel and dimed so we want Medicaid to be unfair too. Not what actually works for the program.

amother

Saddlebrown

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 12:42 pm

amother wrote:

The problem it seems that people don't understand is that everything adds up. You want transportation- well, in my area there are low income bus passes. Disabled transportation at reduced rates. Plus there are waivers for no cost options. Why does Medicaid need to pay for taxis as well?
You want vision, dental care (and not just the basics...) too?
Unlimited Dr visits so parents take all their kids in for a checkup for free when only one is sick? I only bring the one I am concerned about as I have a $35 copay. Plus co insurance if any tests were done. Like I said, I didn't get medication I needed because I couldn't afford it. I suffered. Yes I lived, but why do I have to suffer when everyone else I am paying for gets it all (and more) for free?

Stop saying "dental is not why it's so expensive..." Because everything adds up. Transportation, dental, vision, comprehensive medical...
They deserve it like I deserve it. But I don't get it.

Exactly. It adds up. I can't give specifics as to where I work but it's in a Jewish community. The patients all use paid medicaid transportation (through car services) to get to and from doctor appointments. There are families that come in *weekly* for throat cultures because the mom is clearly obsessed. I guarantee that if they had to pay even a dollar copay, that visit wouldn't happen that often. People who have $35 copays think twice before going to the doctor. I paid for my sons nebulizer and vaporizer because my insurance wouldn't pay while the medicaid patients get it for free. Medicaid started paying for diapers for kids who wet their beds. All of a sudden we have all these moms requesting diapers for their kids. It is unfair that I work my butt off to have enormous taxes taken off so that I can continue to pay huge monthly insurance bills and then have less coverage than those getting it for free. The abuse of medicaid is rampant and it adds up tremendously.

I don't agree to completely get rid of medicaid because there are people that truly need it and don't abuse it. But there should be way more oversight and those that abuse it should be kicked off. There should be minimal copays for visits. That would cut out unnecessary visits. And medicaid should not offer all these services that are denied to other hardworking people with private insurance.

Jeanette

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 12:46 pm

It's all very nice to argue against social service programs and how the poor are living large on the backs of the rich (poor them!). That's been the Republican agenda since forever. But people seem to be forgetting that DT ran on the opposite platform. He did not run as the Republican who would cut social services programs. He ran as the champion of the poor blue collar/middle class workers that everyone forgot about. He ran to replace Obamacare with something bigger, better that would cover more people at less cost. Now he's seeing that "nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated." Huh, who knew??

Jeanette

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 12:53 pm

nylon wrote:

I am fine with a small ER copays, with the option of a waiver in case of real medical necessity. I'm sure we can figure out a way to keep it fair to people with urgent medical needs while reducing unnecessary ER use. I've seen people use the ER for non-urgent matters even when appropriate primary care services are available. A $5 copay is enough to make people think twice about using the ER while not presenting an insurmountable barrier to care for people who truly cannot afford it.

I do not think there should be co-pays for medication or for primary care visits. I would not want people choosing to forgo needed medications to save money, or skipping out on preventive care or follow up appointments.

SixOfWands

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 1:03 pm

Jeanette wrote:

A co-pay penalty for non-emergency treatment in an ER, leaving real emergency care free? Certainly making urgent care centers more available to Medicaid patients would be helpful.

SixOfWands

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 1:19 pm

Jeanette wrote:

I'd be fine with that. I'm also fine with an open, non-partisan exchange of ideas about what's wrong with our healthcare system and how it could be fixed. No chance in he!! of that happening in the current climate though.

We had 6 years for that. Six years where we should have been fixing the many faults with the ACA, particularly as we gained experience with it. And 6 years for the Republicans to come up with a viable alternative. Bubkes. Now, there's no reason for the Republicans to compromise with the left. They will have to deal with the far right, which hates the proposal as much as the left does.