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10:00 am CST - December 27, 2010
Posted under The Scoop
How to Save Medicaid: Make States Responsible
States are desperate to control costs. What works & what doesn’t?
By Merrill Matthews
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas – Medicaid covers 48 million poor Americans with health insurance for children & non-disabled adults, and coverage for the disabled & long-term care. But states differ in who, what & how much is covered. California spends $969 per adult enrollee (2007) versus $5,108 in Alaska, and $3,473 per elderly person in Arizona versus $21,507 in Connecticut.
No excuses: Tennessee, Rhode Island and Florida have shown how costs can be contained.
States would jump at a proposal to allow more flexibility in Medicaid, though many will groan at any suggestion to cap the program’s open-ended federal matching grants.
We have reason to believe this suggestion will work.
Two years ago Rhode Island got a Medicaid waiver giving it more flexibility, while capping the federal government’s share of the costs. The state claims its efforts have saved $150 million in 18 months.
Florida has been a Medicaid reform leader for the disabled. Its “Cash and Counseling” program, which gives disabled people personal assistance accounts to 
choose their own caregivers, has been very popular.
And more than a dozen states have adopted the program.
Long-term care can provide significant savings if states crack down on eligibility. With more flexibility, states could lower the home equity that can be exempted — up to $750,000 in some states — and require a reverse mortgage before Medicaid will pay for a nursing home.
As for health insurance, Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee ended the state’s extensive TennCare program, replacing it with CoverTN, which provides only basic coverage, including physician visits, preventive care and generic drugs at very low out-of-pocket costs. While the coverage is capped at $25,000 total annual benefits, it only costs about $1,800 a year.
If Congress adopts a system of capping the open-ended federal role, it will begin a new era for the program, and most of the talk of opting out of Medicaid will disappear.
Merrill Matthews is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas.
9 Comments
CWJensen
4:14 pm CST
December 27, 2010
Local,State or Federal any program that sets rates and provides open end care asks for FRAUD and there are plenty of people ready to take advantage of ignorant or lazy bureaucrats.
What do they CARE? It is NOT their money.
That applies to the individual administering the program as well as the recipients.
If you want a first hand look at an example of what these type of programs produce, go visit subsidized housing.
Whenever there is NO investment there is NO reason to CARE.
A believe me THEY do NOT care……………………………………….if falls apart from abuse or lack of care they call complain and expect someone to come fix it.
We have created a welfare class of parasites with NO pride or personal conscience.
There is NO easy way out. CUT it off completely. They are worse than any drug addict since they do NOT believe there is a stigma attached to their addiction.
A welfare program is a continuation of feeding a uncontrolled parasitic affliction no matter what government agency is in charge.
It is NOT COMPASSIONATE to encourage destruction of all productive life to allow unproductive parasites to consume them.
SJK
7:40 pm CST
December 27, 2010
Medicaid IS a welfare plan that in Obamacare through the elderly’s huge cuts from Medicare will pay for at the expense of the elderly’s healthcare. Like all the other BIG GOVERNMENT HANDS ON mandats, rules and regualtions, Medicaid is just another Socialist plan of redistribution of wealth.
This whole healthkill plan mess must be REPEALED or found UNCONSTITUTIONAL!
Remember When Hussein and the DEMON RATS said there would be no “death panels” in Medicare? Like EVERtHING else THEY LIED!
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20101226/D9KBCOE80.html
Teresa
9:13 pm CST
December 27, 2010
Texas ought to opt out of the federal Medicaid program completely (and, therefore, stop funding it). The money saved in waste, fraud, and abuse, will by far cover whatever federal money is lost.
There are those who will try to imply that the lost federal money would be too much of a loss. But, if Texans fully-fund the program in state, Texans will be making all the rules….including “who” is eligible, and who isn’t.
Ted
10:19 pm CST
December 27, 2010
What can a nation expect that murders millions of babies? — astronomical murder
Dragonfly
1:08 am CST
December 27, 2010
.
Last year Texas allocated a MILLION DOLLARS for a NEW home inspection program
for HCS [Medicaid wavier program for disabled.] A million dollars, not for the disabled,
but for more bureaucracy. The program is filled with case workers, managers, inspectors,
and many other bureaucrats who get the lions share of the funds, while the disabled get
the leftovers. When Texas lawgivers start cutting HHSC’ s budget, I hope they start with
the bureaucrats.
.
Dragonfly
1:23 am CST
December 27, 2010
.
Correction: Texas allocated over 2 million, with 2 million matching federal funds for the new home inspection program.
” Do home inspections invade privacy or protect vulnerable Texans?
Lawmakers, families and advocates disagree on unannounced visits to check on people with disabilities who get state care. ”
” The new law, Senate Bill 643… ”
” The inspections for both the group homes and foster homes cost $4.2 million a year — half state dollars, half federal.
http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/do-home-inspections-invade-privacy-or-protect-vulnerable-496979.html?printArticle=y
.
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December 27, 2010
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