Obama admin to states: You guys can cut back on Medicaid payments, you know
The Obama administration said Monday that states could cut Medicaid payments to many doctors and other health care providers to hold down costs in the program, which insures 60 million low-income people and will soon cover many more under the new health care law.
The administration’s position, set forth in a federal appeals court in California, has broad national implications as it comes as the White House is trying to persuade states to expand Medicaid as part of the new law.
The statement of federal policy infuriated health care providers and advocates for low-income people. But it may encourage wavering Republican governors to go along with the expansion because it gives them a tool to help control costs. …
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, approved the cuts in October 2011 after finding that beneficiaries would still have “adequate access” to the wide range of services covered by Medicaid.
The Obama administration urged judges to uphold those cuts, which are being challenged by patients, doctors, dentists, hospitals, pharmacists and other health care providers in California.
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Obama admin to states:
You guys can cut back on Medicaid payments, you knowDo what I tell you, your god demands it.Gatsu on February 27, 2013 at 9:52 AM
“Come on, I can’t destabilize the system on my own!” -Obama
Living4Him5534 on February 27, 2013 at 9:53 AM
Dear Liar’s War on the Poor!
rbj on February 27, 2013 at 9:54 AM
So what’s the point of expanding it? Isn’t the end result that providers simply won’t take Medicaid patients, thereby making the ‘expanded access’ moot?
changer1701 on February 27, 2013 at 10:02 AM
Just the 1st step in Nationalizing medicine like in Canada & the UK.
Soon, Drs will not be allowed to refuse patients of any kind bcs they will be said to be discriminating against poor people.
You watch.
This is going to happen.
Badger40 on February 27, 2013 at 10:06 AM
No. It’s War on the Evil Doctors who “make too much”. It serves several purposes.
1. Maskes the true cost of medicare which the Fed or State goverments can’t afford.
2. Dem’s will claim a “crisis” (isn’t it always) as the number of doctors who decline medicaid patients increases.
3. Democrats demand Single Payer in which doctors are wards of the State and can’t refuse medicare or medicaid patients.
It’s coming boys and girls.
WisRich on February 27, 2013 at 10:10 AM
Don’t forget all those newly minted MD’s who have >$200K in student loans and are desperate to earn “loan forgiveness”…he’s got that crowd by the b*lls. They will accept lesser payments because they won’t have a choice.
Wanderlust on February 27, 2013 at 10:16 AM
They Dem’s must be smugly leaning back in their chairs with a big grin on their face thinking “I love it when a plan comes together.”
WisRich on February 27, 2013 at 10:23 AM
The single biggest expense inMediaid is nursing home cost. The boomers hide their parents assets and foist their parents nursing home care on the state. There are legions of lawyers and accountants for whomthe task of protecting assets fot the children is their sole source of their lucrative income. Spouses are also allowed to declare abandonment of the spouse in the home once half the assets have been used. Even with the five year lookback boomers who have planned well avoid paying any of their parents assets for the care. For a fraction of the present cost the govt could provide real scrutiny of a person’s wealth and require that wealth to pay for the care until the payments equal say 75%, of the assets at the beginning of care. This will provide some protection for the childre’s inheritance andinsure that the state is not incurring the total cost for care.
xkaydet65 on February 27, 2013 at 10:24 AM
You know it.
And for the Docs that don’t have student loans, well, they’ll be regulated somehow to be forced to accept everyone anyway & for those patients who wish to pay in cash for up front treatment, they will, like everyone else, be forced to go to the back of the line & wait.
Badger40 on February 27, 2013 at 10:34 AM
They have to see this coming. I often wonder if sll of them really are this evil.
Or perhaps just too stupid to realize Utopian schemes create tyranny.
Badger40 on February 27, 2013 at 10:35 AM
Another example of wealth redistribution.
Obama doesn’t care because it largely entails redistributing wealth from white doctors to other people.
It may clip a few black and Hispanic docs, but face it, it’s one more example of resentment revenge from the get-whitey administration.
BuckeyeSam on February 27, 2013 at 10:36 AM
Ruling liberal elites will always get in to see their doctors, along with John McCain and Lindsey Graham.
BuckeyeSam on February 27, 2013 at 10:37 AM
There was a time when nursing home care did not bankrupt most people.
Back in the day.
OSHA, government meddling in everything taxes etc. have made doing anything more expensive & prohibitive.
Like serving deer meat at a homeless shelter in LA. State government came in & destroyed it all. Bcs of a law preventing the sale of wild game in the marketplace.
Things like this make everything more expensive & difficult.
Badger40 on February 27, 2013 at 10:38 AM
LOLWUT?!
BigGator5 on February 27, 2013 at 11:00 AM
0 Care
Bmore on February 27, 2013 at 11:01 AM
If I had no conscience at all, the way I’d bring them into compliance would be to link it to “discounts” in malpractice insurance – thus driving up the cost of malpractice insurance for those who do not qualify for the government’s “discount”.
That is, if I had no conscience…
Wanderlust on February 27, 2013 at 11:18 AM
Or they could cut the benefits and pay of their public employee unions.
Obama and his wife clearly have a hostility towards doctors with the way they clearly think they are over paid.
NeoKong on February 27, 2013 at 11:25 AM