It was always a question for me when the House would have the guts to actually kill the Medicaid budget. Every year it would sneak though by 5-10 votes. This year, they actually killed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lead by their wise Speaker, Mike Moyle, just over half the House Representatives wished away health insurance for Idahoans in poverty. It\u2019s like spanking your stepson. What is your point? Other than to demonstrate your authority, or maybe your lack of generosity, or maybe your fealty to the Freedom Foundation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Make no mistake, Medicaid is a Federal\/State health insurance program for low-income people. The trouble is, Wayne Hoffman and most Idaho Republicans think these low-income folks don\u2019t deserve health insurance. I can just see their bluster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have health insurance because I work for it!\u201d They thump their proud, inflated chest. Yeah, you have a \u00bc time, taxpayer funded job with full medical coverage, also at the taxpayer\u2019s expense. This stepson sees some hypocrisy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI voted against the Medicaid budget because we must control the costs!\u201d comes the other cry of outrage. Well, addressing that problem will take more than a simple no vote. Does the average Idaho Republican legislator know that Medicaid annually costs the taxpayer less per enrollee than their plush state health insurance benefit? Does even the best-informed Idaho Republican legislator know the main mechanism used to control Medicaid costs is to pay hospitals and doctors less? When you take your sick legislative runny nose to your doctor, the state Insurance pays that doctor about three times what the poor person\u2019s Medicaid pays. Do you like that method of cost control? Then I can see why you might think a \u201cno\u201d vote would control Medicaid costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Controlling health insurance costs is more complicated than motivating a sullen teenage stepson. Slapping either won\u2019t help. It takes a lot more work than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Make no mistake, what we are really talking about here is poverty. I can hear Wayne, and his \u201cvote no\u201d minions scream, \u201cNo, it\u2019s about preserving the American Way! People should work for what they get!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I ask you, Wayne, and House \u201cNo\u201d voters, do you know anybody on Medicaid? Do they work? If they don\u2019t, I\u2019ll bet it\u2019s because they are a child, pregnant, a young mother, or taking care of someone. All the Medicaid patients I see are working. But, unlike my three elected Representatives, Medicaid workers don\u2019t get Blue Cross health insurance with their part-time or low pay full-time work. Not all employers are as generous as your voters are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t complain that they are wasting your taxpayer dollars with their ER visits for runny noses. Doctors\u2019 offices refuse to see Medicaid, where the care would be a third of the cost. Medicaid patients often have the ER as their only choice for care. Doctor\u2019s offices refuse because you, fully insured legislator, have budgeted to pay doctors at a third of the price of what your Blue Cross Special plan pays them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, the House finally pulled the trigger and killed the multi-billion-dollar Medicaid budget. And what fiscally responsible substitute solution did they then come up with? The new budget looks a lot cheaper for this year, but there will be a $150M supplemental next year. Kick it down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nothing wrong with a little posturing, I guess. Maybe that\u2019s all it\u2019s about. Stepsons know posturing when they see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m going to relent here. There is a plan in the works to study \u201cmanaged care\u201d as a plan for controlling Medicaid costs. If anybody had been paying attention, they\u2019d have seen the weak results many other states have had with this. I give the legislature a C- for the effort. It\u2019s a mystery to me why Medicaid gets the slapped face, when private insurance costs have beat inflation year over year. Who\u2019s driving this bus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s pretty clear the Idaho Legislature doesn\u2019t have their hands on the wheel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was always a question for me when the House would have the guts to actually kill the Medicaid budget. Every year it would sneak though by 5-10 votes. This year, they actually killed it. Lead by their wise Speaker, … Continue reading