Governors Recommend Changes to Medicaid(CUTBACKS)

[mom cat]

Governors Recommend Changes to Medicaid

By Kevin Freking Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 15, 2005


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBM7ZFZZ9E.html



WASHINGTON (AP) - States should be allowed to charge Medicaid recipients bigger copayments or deductibles, just as private insurers can, the nation's governors said Wednesday.
The recommendations, part of a plan to slow Medicaid's growth, would abandon a "one-size-fits-all" approach in favor of one that gives states more flexibility in administering the government health care program for the poor.

Among the ideas: offering unique benefits to unique populations, tailoring benefits to particular locations or charging more for services.

"It is not the intention of the governors to see how many people we can take away from access to medical care. It is exactly the opposite," said Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican. "But the current system is unsustainable."

[EVDebs]

1. Single Payer is what big business is requiring us to go to since

big business multinationals support globalization. Corporate welfare since WWII shows that corporations have dropped the amount they pay in taxes down to 25% of their post war levels. It gets even worse now that they're "outsourcing" jobs along with their profits.

Joe Sixpack gets stuck making up the difference. And Repubs have the nerve, along with Grover Norquist, to scream for "starving the beast".

The middle class can hardly continue and the safety nets have all been cut.

Thank God there are still some Democrats left in Congress to carry the public's water.

[TahitiNut]

2. What if we spent $400B/year on the Public Health Service?

:eyes:

[Iowa]

3. Ridiculous!

"States should be allowed to charge Medicaid recipients bigger copayments or deductibles, just as private insurers can, the nation's governors said Wednesday."

Please! Most of these people have nothing to pay. A disabled SSI recipient must try to survive on $579 per month. Asking destitute, disabled Medicaid recipients to help pay for all those Republican tax goodies for wealthy CEOs is entirely consistent with the Republican mentality.

It is not possible to be both a Republican and a Christian in the US today. Anyone who claims to be both is a liar and a snake.

[mom cat]

5. Amen to that!

[jwirr]

4. When the income tax system uses a sliding fee scale to

determine their taxes THEN the poor can be asked to use a sliding fee to determine their co-pay. I notice that it was a repug who was quoted - what did the democratic governors have to say?