President Obama promised that health care reform would cost less than $1 trillion, so the Affordable Care Act relies heavily on expanding Medicaid to cover the uninsured. Without substantial Medicaid reform, however, ObamaCare will result in a human and fiscal disaster, says Paul Howard, director of the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Medical Progress, and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office.
- The program often pays only 70 percent of what Medicare pays physicians — which itself is about 20 percent below private rates — and reimbursement is slow.
- More than half of primary care physicians and 35 percent of specialists have either limited the number of Medicaid patients they see or refused to accept new ones.
- With so many doctors unwilling to treat them, Medicaid patients often have to wait longer before receiving a diagnosis or treatment.
- This can have lethal consequences: in 2007, a Maryland boy died from an abscessed tooth because his mother had trouble finding a dentist who accepted Medicaid.
–Texas Insider
“We don’t have health care in America – we have sick care,” said Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, who along with Senate Health Committee Chairman Jane Nelson introduced Senate Bills 7 and 8 to increase health care savings for the State of Texas, create flexibility for providers, enhance transparency & improve medical outcomes for patients. Unlike Obamacare – which grows government, raises taxes, increases regulations and mandates individuals to purchase health insurance – Senate Bills 7 and 8 take a free market approach by changing the way doctors and hospitals are paid, and ultimately, changing the way we look at health care. “Senate Bills 7 and 8 create incentives for physicians and hospitals – as well as other health care providers – to collaborate and focus on outcomes,” said Dan Stultz, President and CEO of the Texas Hospital Association. –Texas Insider
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