Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Ted Cruz

7 (6.5%)

Rick Santorum

16 (14.8%)

Michelle Bachmann

13 (12%)

Chris Christie

23 (21.3%)

Rand Paul

49 (45.4%)

Total Members Voted: 107

[GlyphGryph]

My kids are on Medicaid, and we've had a few scares over the years where we thought they'd lost that coverage.  It does pay for 100% of their healthcare.  I have no idea how it covers adults.

Covering kids is one of the most generous aspects of Medicaid and the easiest to qualify for and maintain qualification. Adults, especially those who are single, tend to have the largest barriers thrown in front of them.

Also, many doctors just outright refuse to treat medicaid patients, and there's no requirement they do so.

[LordSlowpoke]

Also, many doctors just outright refuse to treat medicaid patients, and there's no requirement they do so.

lolwat

was this ever covered by media, sounds like the sort of shit that would provoke at least a bit of outrage

or are you guys still going by the "i have the right to refuse service to whoever i want for whatever reason" thing that was the cornerstone of segregation etc.

[SalmonGod]

Oh, yeah.  Every doctor's office I've ever been in my whole life has had a sign posted somewhere stating "We do/do not accept Medicaid".  I don't recall this ever being mentioned by the media.

[GlyphGryph]

Why would people be outraged? I mean, as far as "bad things" go that's not really all that bad?

[LordSlowpoke]

huh, might be true. i'm not speaking with the right perspective here, so

* LordSlowpoke deposits a truck of table salt in the thread

use this as needed

but seriously, what purpose do docs have to deny it? it doesn't pay them enough? they've been "kindly requested" to do so by insurance companies? both?

[Sheb]

From what I know, medicaid doesn't pay much compared to most insurances.

[Frumple]

Yeah... as I understand it, medicaid actually has enough weight -- and more of an incentive -- to say "Up yours." to some of the more egregious price gouging that goes on in the US medical system. So they actually pay something more resembling a reasonable price, unlike (many/most) other insurance programs.

[LordSlowpoke]

so that's the disincentive part

but then considering all the bans we'd have a lot of people wishing for that one doctor who does accept medicaid to treat them, meaning high and kinda-guaranteed volume contrasted to the people who can afford switching doctors as they please?

it might work this way already. i mean salmon's kids were treated somewhere weren't they

[RedKing]

My understanding of why many medical practices don't accept Medicaid is that not only do they get paid a lot less, but they have to fill out reams of paperwork and then wait forever for the money to show up. Once you factor in the cost of paying your office staff to do all the paperwork and your overhead, you may not even be breaking even. And many doctors have a full slate of patients -- an hour spent with a Medicaid patient that will net you virtually nothing is an hour you aren't spending on a patient whose money will be available quickly and easily.

It's a fairly cold-blooded decision, but that's what happens when medical care is a capitalist commodity just like everything else.

[mainiac]

Considering the fact that basic rent in in Seattle (judging by my recent search attempts) is 1,200 for the shittiest of places within an hour of the city. Health insurance is at least 400 a month for a healthcare plan that is basically worthless, but legally required (thanks Obamacare!)

"Basically worthless" plans are now illegal and a silver level plan for someone at the minimum wage full time now costs about 100 a month (assuming they don't just get the free medicare expansion).

Thanks Obamacare!

It's all well and fine for people to treat politicians like idiots when they screw up, but when a politician fixes a problem and then you complain at them for not fixing it you are the cancer that is killing b America.

My understanding of why many medical practices don't accept Medicaid is that not only do they get paid a lot less, but they have to fill out reams of paperwork and then wait forever for the money to show up.

I worked in a office that accepted Medicaid.  The paperwork wasn't a hassle, they just paid less.

I'm sure that if you try and nickle and dime medicaid they would push back and you'd get lots of paperwork that way.  But medicaid and medicare patients were a minor and uncomplicated part of my workload.  Even Tricare (military benefits outside the VA system) were more paperwork for me.  A large part of my day was mailing around unnecessary paperwork for the private insurance claims.  Basically the insurers created work to see if we would fail through either oversight or frustration and let them off the hook.  Medicaid and medicare never did that, for them it was a question of if the claim was legit, not if they could dodge it.

I suspect that a lot of doctors offices would rather pay for 10 dollars of administrative labor then give up 9 dollars of medicaid money and that's why everyone doesn't talk about how medicaid and certainly medicare is so much easier.  But that would require them to be people with souls who do medicine to help people rather then moneygrubbing dirtbags.

[GlyphGryph]

No, no, plans that were *actually* worthless are now illegal. The bronze plabs are still pretty terrible.

Also I did mention later in the post that its also subsidized now so you can pay significantly less than that. I noticed now I did forget to add the second "thanks obamacare!" to that, so apologies.

[SalmonGod]

I'm sure that if you try and nickle and dime medicaid they would push back and you'd get lots of paperwork that way.  But medicaid and medicare patients were a minor and uncomplicated part of my workload.  Even Tricare (military benefits outside the VA system) were more paperwork for me.  A large part of my day was mailing around unnecessary paperwork for the private insurance claims.  Basically the insurers created work to see if we would fail through either oversight or frustration and let them off the hook.  Medicaid and medicare never did that, for them it was a question of if the claim was legit, not if they could dodge it.

This is quite easy to imagine, given how slimy private insurance practices are.  Fuckers have tried to screw us many times, and nearly made me lose an arm to MRSA.  Medicaid challenges us to maintain the coverage sometimes, but we almost never have trouble making use of that coverage.

[palsch]

One argument I've seen elsewhere is that Medicare/aid is so underfunded at a staffing level that they can't afford to bring the sorts of challenges to each individual bill that private insurers can bring. So they pay less than other sources but are less likely to refuse to pay for reason listed in section 45, paragraph (f) of contract VII of round 3 of price and condition negotiations in 2010.

Which is to say that the non-privatised aspect of Medicare can only afford to spend 1-2% of it's total outlays on overheads, including administrative costs, tax collection, fraud enforcement and other challenges to billing, while private insurance overheads are more in the 10-20% range (IIRC, including advertising and profit, which is usually exclude in such comparisons).

Combine this with a medical profession which is based on doctors going so deep into debt and having such high cost insurance that they can only break even by taking on 30 Medicare level 15 minute appointments each day and you get a situation where doctors can't afford to take on the most efficient patients...

[mainiac]

2% of medicare costs going into overhead doesn't mean it's underfunded, it means that it's actually oriented towards a healthcare mission.  If Medicare wants to shift more costs onto the patient they can just increase the copays.  If the cost of coverage for some items is too expensive then they can drop coverage of procedures.  It's a system arranged around getting people coverage and that's far more efficient.

If Blue Cross Blue Shield asks for so much documentation that a patient gives up and shells out 50 bucks out of pocket, that's a win for BCBS.  If Medicare did that, it wouldn't be a win.  The missions are different.

[misko27]

So recently Ted Cruz, noted opponent of big government everywhere, announced to a convention he supports the Reagan approach to foreign policy; or in his words, "Peace through strength". No contradictions there.

Hillary Clinton is 'on the way" to making a decision on running. Meanwhile, if she doesn't run, the entire Democratic leadership throws a fit.

And in Mississippi, Chris McDaniel, beloved of conservative activists and Democrat strategists everywhere, and Ted Cochran head to a runoff on June 24th. If Chris "Mamacitas" McDaniel wins, it could open up the chance for the first Democratic senator in Mississippi since 1982.