Medicaid

An Unhappy Birthday For Medicare And Medicaid

July 27, 2018 By Martha Burk, Otherwords.org Educate! Health Care, Medicaid, Medicare

July 30 marks a very important anniversary in our modern political history. Fifty-three years ago in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law, creating two programs that would disproportionately improve the lives of older and low-income Americans — especially women. Fast-forward to 2018, and both programs are very much under siege. Nowhere is the struggle starker than in the House Republican budget — titled “A Brighter American Future” — now on Capitol Hill. The importance of Medicare as a source of women’s health coverage can’t be over-emphasized. Older and disabled women make up more than half the total beneficiaries, and two-thirds of those 85 and over.

Kentucky Governor Retaliates Against Poor After Court Rejects Medicaid Changes

July 10, 2018 Michael Corcoran, Truthout.org Educate! Courts, Kentucky, Medicaid, Poverty

GOP cruelty is not new, but it seems to be reaching new depths. Case in point: In Kentucky, Gov. Matt Bevin is now using the lives of Medicaid patients like pieces on a chessboard in an act of revenge and political spectacle. Governor Bevin’s administration announced that he would deprive Medicaid patients of dental and vision benefits, effective immediately. This unilateral (and some say illegal) maneuver impacts 460,000 peoplein Kentucky. This occurred just hours after a federal court stopped his Kentucky Health plan, which would throw people off Medicaid with work requirements, deductibles and other administrative and economic obstacles. The case in question is Stewart v. Azar. Through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Trump administration announced new guidelines in January to remake the program in the GOP’s image.

Rural Whites Shielded From Medicaid Work Requirement Rules

May 22, 2018 Ilana Novick, Truthdig.com Educate! Medicaid, Racism, Rural

In April, President Trump signed an executive order allowing some Medicaid recipients to be exempted from requirements that they find jobs or lose their health insurance. Now, the states taking advantage of the order, called “Reducing Poverty in America,” are facing scrutiny for allegedly creating policies that, as Talking Points Memo (TMP) reports, “would in practice shield many rural, white residents from the impact of the new rules.” Kentucky and Ohio are applying for the waivers that the executive order allows. Each of their proposals include exemptions for the counties with the highest unemployment, which happen to be mostly white, GOP-voting and rural. In contrast, according to TMP, “many low-income people of color who live in high-unemployment urban centers would not qualify...

Patients Protest MedStar’s Policies At Union Memorial Hospital

May 11, 2018 Bill Hughes, Baltimore Post Examiner Resist! Corporate greed, Health Care, Medicaid, Poverty

A spirited protest action was held at MedStar’s Union Memorial Hospital on Thursday morning, May 10, 2018. The hospital is located at 3333 N. Calvert Street, at 33rd Street & University Parkway, in Baltimore. About 40 activists showed up for the rally/press conference, which was sourced by the Maryland branch of “Health Care is a Human Right” (HCHR)” campaign. MedStar was the target of the protest action. The protesters charged that the institution had recently arbitrarily dropped Dr. Shawn Dhillon, a primary care doctor at Union Memorial for 20 years.” This action was supposedly done without cause by cutting him from “MedStar’s insurance plans.” This also had the effect of terminating half of the patients in his practice.

Debate Over Strategy For National Improved Medicare For All Continues

February 23, 2018 Margaret Flowers, Lee Stanfield and Kevin Zeese, Healthoverprofit.org Strategize! Health Care, Medicaid, Single-Payer

On February 1, Margaret Flowers posted “Which Path to National Improved Medicare for All?”, which argued that states cannot enact single payer health systems and that a state-by-state approach will not lead to National Improved Medicare for All (NIMA). The article was intended to stimulate debate about strategies to win NIMA. Kip Sullivan, a single payer activist in Minnesota, responded to some of the points in the article. His arguments were discussed by the Health Over Profit for Everyone steering committee. Below are summaries of Sullivan’s responses and our rebuttals (Sullivan’s full response and the rebuttals are provided at the bottom). Please use the comment section and our Facebook page to keep this discussion going.

Spring 2018 Single Payer Action Camp

February 5, 2018 Margaret Flowers, Health Over Profit. Organize! Health Care, Medicaid, Medicare for all, Single payer health care

Health Over Profit for Everyone, in partnership with the Backbone Campaign, is offering the first Single Payer Action Camp to build participant's skills in strategy, messaging and direct action to win National Improved Medicare for All. The camp will include workshops on tools for developing strategic campaigns, how to make your message visible, creating media, nonviolent direct action and more. We will put those skills to use on Monday and Tuesday through actions in Washington, DC.

Kentucky Medicaid Enrollees Sue To Block Work Requirement Waiver

January 25, 2018 By Harris Meyer, Occupythebronx.org Resist! Kentucky, Lawsuit, Medicaid

Groups representing Kentucky Medicaid beneficiaries sued the federal government Wednesday to block the state from implementing its Medicaid waiver program that includes a work requirement. The proposed class action complaint alleges the changes, which include premiums, cost-sharing and a controversial work requirement, will lead to substantial reductions in Medicaid coverage. The CMS approved Kentucky's Medicaid waiver application this month. The controversial work requirement means able-bodied beneficiaries will have to complete 80 hours per month of community engagement activities, such as employment, education, job skills training or community service to maintain their Medicaid eligibility.

More Trouble Ahead: Puerto Rico’s Impending Medicaid Crisis

October 10, 2017 Lara Merling and Jake Johnston, www.cepr.net Educate! Hurricane, Medicaid, Natural Disasters, Puerto Rico

By Lara Merling and Jake Johnston for CEPR - Already in the midst of a fiscal crisis, Puerto Rico faces a long road to recovery from Hurricane Maria, a devastating storm it was ill-equipped to handle. The urgent efforts to address both the humanitarian needs and damage caused by the storm must also extend to solving the island’s imminent Medicaid crisis, a preexisting condition that plagued Puerto Rico before the hurricane and that has been exacerbated by it. This paper examines the inadequate federal support received by Puerto Rico for its Medicaid program, and shows that ― barring immediate action from the US Congress ― the territory will not have sufficient funds to continue operating in 2018. While the cost of living is higher in Puerto Rico than the US average, health care services are the only item that is significantly less costly on the island. Using 2016 Medicaid costs and looking at known migration patterns, we calculate what the federal government and states are likely to pay for providing Medicaid for Puerto Ricans moving to US states from 2018 to 2027 using two different migration scenarios.

Protesters Rise Up To Block Health Care Repeal

September 26, 2017 Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Resist! ACA, Health Care, Medicaid, Medicare for all

By Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. Washington, DC - With the September 30 deadline for the budget reconciliation process looming, Senate Republicans attempted once again to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Senators Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and Dr. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana submitted legislation last week that would end the Medicaid expansion, cut federal funds for Medicaid and allow states to decide that insurers could deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. States would also no longer have to require that insurers cover essential benefits, as defined in the ACA. The bill seemed dead by the end of last week when Senator John McCain announced that he would vote against it. But Senators Graham and Cassidy went into high gear over the weekend to add extra funding for states like Alaska, Maine and Arizona to encourage their support. Activists throughout the country also geared up to fight back.

‘Big Reflection’ Needed On Opioid Crisis

June 25, 2017 Tharanga Yakupitiyage, www.ipsnews.net Educate! health, Medicaid, Opioids

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage for InterPress Service. UNITED NATIONS, Jun 22 2017 (IPS) - Opioids are among the most devastating drugs and are creating a crisis of epidemic proportions, said the UN drug agency. In its annual World Drug Report, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found concerning trends in drug use around the world. In 2015, an estimated quarter of a billion people used drugs at least once. Of these, almost 30 million suffered from drug use disorders including dependence. UNODC found that opioids were the most harmful drug type, accounting for 70 percent of negative health impacts associated with drug use disorders worldwide, and its production is only increasing. “[Opioid use] is a really dramatic epidemic…they are really, in terms of burden of disease, at the top of the scale,” said UNODC’s Chief of Drug Prevention and Health Branch Gilberto Gerra to IPS.

Trump To Pitch Deep Cuts To Anti-Poverty Programs, Medicaid

May 24, 2017 Erik Wasson and Steven T. Dennis, www.bloomberg.com Educate! Donald Trump, Medicaid, Poverty

By Erik Wasson and Steven T. Dennis for Bloomberg - President Donald Trump plans to propose $1.7 trillion in cuts to a category of spending that includes major social and entitlement programs for lower-income Americans, as part of an effort to balance the budget within a decade. The White House will issue a formal budget request Tuesday that includes $274 billion in cuts over 10 years to means-tested anti-poverty programs, including food stamps, according to a Republican congressional aide and a White House document obtained by Bloomberg News. The administration has prepared talking points for Republicans on Capitol Hill touting that the “budget strives to replace dependency with the dignity of work through welfare reform efforts.” The upcoming budget request for fiscal 2018, which include dropping the top individual tax rate to 35 percent, is already attracting criticism from Democrats. Trump’s proposal will also call for $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid, the health program for the poor, the Washington Post reported. “This budget continues to reveal President Trump’s true colors: His populist campaign rhetoric was just a Trojan horse to execute long-held, hard-right policies that benefit the ultra-wealthy at the expense of the middle class,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement Sunday.

RyanCare Undermines Medicare And Medicaid, Despite Trump Promise

March 17, 2017 Janine Jackson, www.fair.org Resist! Congress, Medicaid, Medicare, Trump Administration

By Janine Jackson for CounterSpin - Like others, this story was about how right-wing Republicans might present hurdles to the plan’s passage, because it’s too much like the dreaded Obamacare, and how they might be appeased. So much coverage of healthcare is set in terms of the political process—who presents obstacles, what groups are being whistled to—that the specifics, the reality of how changes in policy could affect actual people, can sometimes get lost. And healthcare could hardly be a worse place for that to happen. Here to help us see some of what’s going on with this GOP bill is Nancy Altman. She’s co-director of Social Security Works and co-chair of the Strengthen Social Security coalition and campaign. She joins us now by phone from Maryland. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Nancy Altman.

11 Million Could Lose Health Coverage If Expansion Of Medicaid Repealed

December 31, 2016 Jesse Cross-Call, www.cbpp.org Educate! Health Care, Medicaid

By Jesse Cross-Call for Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Congressional Republicans indicate they will repeal key sections of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) early next year, including its Medicaid expansion. Repealing the Medicaid expansion would eliminate health coverage for up to, and quite possibly more than, 11 million low-income Americans in the 31 states (plus the District of Columbia) that have taken up this option. It would also cut off the possibility of gaining coverage for the 4 million uninsured people in the remaining 19 states who would become Medicaid-eligible if their state expanded.

Obama Approves PA Plan To Privatize And Eliminate Medicaid

September 6, 2014 Douglas Lyons, www.wsws.org Educate! health, Medicaid, Obama, Pennsylvania

The Obama administration has given final approval to a Pennsylvania plan that essentially privatizes Medicaid and abolishes the program as an entitlement. Pennsylvania Republican Governor Tom Corbett’s Healthy PA plan is an alternative to the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. The state and the Obama administration had negotiated for months over Corbett’s proposal, which will begin December 1 and will be called Healthy PA Private Coverage Option. Corbett said, in a prepared statement: “From the beginning, I said we needed a plan that was created in Pennsylvania, for Pennsylvania, a plan that would allow us to reform a financially unsustainable Medicaid program and increase access to health care for eligible individuals through the private market.” The federal government similarly praised the plan, saying, “Like we are doing in Pennsylvania, [the US Department of Health and Human Services] and CMS [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] are committed to supporting state flexibility and working with states on innovative solutions that work within the confines of the law to expand Medicaid to low-income individuals.” In fact, the plan seeks to undermine and restrict health care coverage.

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