Panel calls for extensive alterations in Medicaid

[Judi Lynn]

Nov. 26, 2006, 12:45AM
Panel calls for extensive alterations in Medicaid

By ROBERT PEAR
New York Times

WASHINGTON — A federal advisory panel says that long-term care for aging baby boomers threatens to bankrupt Medicaid, and it recommends extensive changes to rein in costs, including greater use of managed care for the sickest Medicaid recipients.

The proposals set up a likely clash between the new Democrat-controlled Congress and the Bush administration, which has sent strong signals that it will seek big savings in Medicaid next year.

Panel members have adopted the recommendations and are drafting a report to be submitted next month to Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services. Leavitt created the panel in May 2005 and is receptive to many of its proposals.

The panel, known as the Medicaid Commission, said states should have more freedom to alter benefits and eligibility for the program, which serves more than 50 million low-income people.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4358650.html

[monarch]

1. The dreaded`word "democrat"

as an adjective. We have to start`stamping that out. It is clearly meant as a pejorative when republicans do it.

On another topic, I wish that all DUers`would use the check spelling feature. It caught a typo in mine and when I see a DU post that is full of misspellings, I immediately think freeper.

[Vinca]

3. I'm sending emails out every time I hear it used that way.

It drives me crazy. I actually think the vast majority of non-Republican people who use it don't realize it's a slur and a form of disrespect.

[Big_Mike]

7. On the other topic

Firefox 2.0 is a life saver. Spell checks as you type. Now if it will only fix my poor grammar...

[Demeter]

2. Want To Save Money? Universal, Single Payer Health Care!

Just bite the bullet, do everybody a great favor, make everyone's life better, improve profits for everyone (except the insurance companies, but screw them!) and join the 20th century, at least, with Europe, Canada, and any other functional Developed Nation.

[Strathos]

4. A-Men

How long before we catch on to what most of the world already knows?

[sam sarrha]

5. stop Drug advertising save 50%, group medicare bulk drug purchase save another 1/3, & set up Hospice

care for the terminally ill and save another 50%.. and eliminate scam treatment and the torture of the elderly by medical facilities for profit.. my great aunt was tortured for 3 years.. she went in for a minor injury on her little toe and they cut off a little piece at a time as it got worse and worse.. she finally died from neglect when they removed her leg at the hip and "forgot" to give her any pain medication.. she went into shock the 2nd day and died at the age of 92.

they tried to get my 82 yr old mother to have a heart valve operation.. they said she only had months to live and the valve would extend her life a couple years. she is still going strong 5 years later.. they kept calling her and telling her how much she would suffer without the operation.. she told them to.."Fuck Off" on the phone one day.. and they didn't call back.

i had a 78 year old friend that got throat cancer and they were going to save him.. he finally asked what they were going to do one day and they said they were going to remove his right arm and entire shoulder, his jaw, his tongue, all the muscles in his neck on the rt side and his esophagus and wind pipe.. and the xray treatment would kill his tear ducts.. he told them to Fuck off too.. they called him 4 times a day till he blocked their number..

i have heard that 89% of the cost of medical care in an individuals life is the last couple of years of their life.. it is time to just be honest and let people die with dignity in their own time when there is no other option..

[Bozvotros]

8. I think you have hit the nail on the head

The drug companies have thousands of marketers going door to door at physicians, hawking their drugs. This is not considered part of their marketing or advertising budget. These marketers are paid around 60K and often get cars and great benefits. The drug companies also pay for "scientific studies" which are repeated and adjusted until they get results worth marketing. Many of these studies don't pass even rudimentary peer review. They hire MDs and scientists at great expense to do these studies and tack all these costs onto the medicines. There is no way a pharmaceutical company should be charging us for their studies, done by their paid ringers...but they do. Let them pay the FDA to do all studies and block them from any contributions to political candidates.

And you are exactly right that patients are not given data on the real possible outcomes of surgerical or medical procedures. They may be told that there is a X% chance of survival and a X% chance of complications but very little about those complications or the quality of life afterward. Nursing homes are packed with people who have never recovered from cardiac and ortho surgeries and whose care is now too complex for their families. And then they are given fast access to the meds they need to extend their life in this condition.

There are lots of ways to save money on end of life care, including greater money for hospice, home health and mental health providers who can counsel and advise competently on these issues as well as the emotional repercussions of getting radical treatment or not.

There are also probably millions of folks who stay unemployed or who try to get disability in order to keep or get Medicaid and because they can't afford or get child care. A single payor national health plan and more government funded child care are sorely needed.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. Here be dragons.

Medicaid 'reform' will be structured around the lie that it is only poor people who are affected. The reality is that the real savings to be had are with the elderly and in particular with long term institutional and in-home elder care, and the 'savings' will be first on the backs of boomers already caring for their elder parents, and then on the children of the boomers and the boomers themselves as they need long term care. The policy shifts already made (in particular the 2005 'reform') are already essentially a huge and hidden tax increase on the middle class. Will Congressional Democrats stand up and speak out on this or hide behind the lies and take the easy way out?