Medicaid

How Health Care Works in America, and Why It’s So Bad

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Keith Jackson, MD – We all know in our hearts that a well functioning society should reward intelligence and hard work.  This runs counter to the thinking of those who consider this concept aggressively hurtful to the stupid and lazy, but it is something we know should be true. Merit should matter.  Similarly, we know that well functioning medical care should reward good care of the sick and the intelligent pursuit of seeking even better outcomes.  Many things are working against merit-based reward in health care, however.

Capitalistic principles should help reward the best medical practitioners.  After all, in the archetypical example, if you make the best basket, I’m more likely to part with my best pelt in trade.  Merit is rewarded most reasonably with the capitalistic model.  If the doctor is known to provide the best care, he will be the most financially successful. Continue reading →

A Guide To Medicaid Long-Term Care

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medicaidMax Gottleib – If you’ve begun your search for Medicaid long-term care benefits then you’ve undoubtedly discovered how complicated the whole process is. Of course, there are state offices you can call, but half the time they’ll redirect you to another office that will then give you another phone number. And don’t even get me started on the headache you’ll have if you’ve sent in an application without all the necessary forms and qualifications. All is not lost, however, because the team at Senior Planning has put together a nationwide Medicaid guide. We’re listed on the NIH’s list of resources so you can rest assured the information is accurate.

After receiving numerous calls to our office from out-of-state clients, we were surprised to find out that a nationwide Medicaid guide did not exist anywhere on the web. Furthermore, states fail to update their Medicaid pages and even when they do, it is nearly impossible for someone to find what they are looking for if they are inexperienced in the matter. We found the information by plowing through state legislation, calling state ombudsman offices repeatedly, and digging deep into government sites. Continue reading →

Obamacare: Raiding The Assets Of Low-Income And Poor Americans

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PaulCraigRoberts  February 8 2014

The anonymous Obamacare expert, who provided us a year ago with the most complete account of Obamacare available, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/02/03/obamacare-a-primer/ has returned with an explanation of estate recovery. Obamacare herds the poor into Medicaid which requires some patients to forfeit homes or any assets they might have to the state to cover the cost of their medical care. The research article below is meticulous and demonstrates that Obamacare was not enacted to serve the people.

Obamacare: The Final Payment
Raiding the assets of low-income and poor Americans

Since writing “Obamacare: Devils in the Details” posted on this site on February 3, 2013, I have investigated in detail other aspects of the insurance industry’s program to bring health care to Americans. In this article I explain estate recovery to which poorer Americans herded by Obamacare into Medicaid are subject. In violation of moral philosopher John Rawls’ second principle of justice, some of the poorest Americans will pay the highest cost of health care as they, and they alone, are subject to having the family home and any other assets they might possess confiscated by the state in order to reimburse Obamacare for the cost of their medical expenses. The compassionate rhetoric aside, Obamacare makes the poor pay the most.

Under what was deceptively named the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, which is unaffordable for the patient in more ways than one, beginning January 1, 2014, citizens without health insurance must pay a tax penalty to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Qualified individuals and families with incomes between 138 and 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) can shop for commercial insurance policies at a Health Insurance Marketplace (an exchange) and may be eligible for a subsidy from the government to help pay for a plan. Those with incomes at or below 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level will be tossed into Medicaid unless there are specific reasons why they would not be eligible.

The Federal Poverty Level incomes for different family sizes for 2014 established by the Department of Health and Human Services can be found here:  http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/14poverty.cfm To determine whether you will be put into Medicaid, find the Federal Poverty Level annual income that applies to your family size for 2014 from the HHS tables and multiply the amount by 1.38. If your annual income is not larger than this amount, into Medicaid you go. For example, to avoid being put into Medicaid by Obamacare, a single individual in the 48 states and D.C. needs an income that is more than 138 percent of $11,670 (more than $16,105). A family of four needs an income that is more than 138 percent of $23,850 (more than $32,913). Poverty level incomes in Alaska and Hawaii are higher due to the higher cost of living in those states.

You won’t find estate recovery in the ACA. It’s in the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1993 (OBRA 1993)–a federal statute which applies to Medicaid, and, if you are enrolled in Medicaid, it will apply to you.

Estate Recovery

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Obamacare Is Another Private Sector Rip-Off Of Americans

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Paul Craig Roberts  October 1 2013

The private sector allied with government is a second IRS

MedicaidThe government of the “world’s only superpower,” the “exceptional,” the “indispensable” country, claims to know what is best for Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, Mali, Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, China, indeed for the entire world. However, the “indispensable” country cannot even govern itself, much less the world over which the “superpower” desires hegemony. The government of the “world’s only superpower” has shut itself down.

The government has shut itself down, because it cannot deal with the budget deficit and mounting public debt caused by twelve years of wars, by financial deregulation that allows “banks too big to fail” to loot the taxpayers, and by the loss of jobs, GDP, and tax base that jobs offshoring forced by Wall Street caused.

The Republicans are using the fight over the limit on new public debt to block Obamacare. The Republicans are right to oppose Obamacare, but they are opposing Obamacare largely for ideological reasons when there are very good sound reasons to oppose Obamacare.

Last February 3, I posted on this website a column, “Obamacare: A Deception,” written by an expert on the subject. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/02/03/obamacare-a-primer/

When Republicans for ideological reasons blocked a single-payer health system like the rest of the developed world has and, indeed, even some developing countries have, the Obama regime, needing a victory, went to the insurance companies and told them to come up with a health care plan that the insurance lobby could get passed by Congress. Obamacare was written by the private insurance industry with the goal of raising its profits with 50 million mandated new customers.

Obamacare works for the insurance companies, but not for the uninsured. The cost of using Obamacare is prohibitive for those who most need the health coverage. The cost of the premiums net of the government subsidy is large. It amounts to a substantial pay cut for people struggling to pay their bills. In addition to the premium cost, it is prohibitive for hard pressed Americans to use the policies because of the deductibles and co-pays. For the very poor, who are thrown into Medicaid systems, any assets they might have, such as a home, are subject to confiscation to cover their Medicaid bills. The only people other than the insurance companies who benefit from Obamacare are the down and out who are devoid of all assets.

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Avik Roy ~ Unpublished CRS Memo: ObamaCare

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Forbes August 18 2013 (Thanks, LB)

Obama Administration Has Missed Half Of Obamacare’s Legally Imposed Implementation Deadlines

In recent months, President Obama and his subordinates have waived or delayed a number of Obamacare’s notable features, such as the law’s employer mandate, and its procedures for protecting taxpayers from fraud and identity theft. Earlier this month, in that context, I obtained a heretofore-unpublished memorandum from the Congressional Research Service. The CRS, Congress’ non-partisan in-house think tank, compiled 82 deadlines that the Affordable Care Act mandates upon the first three years of its own implementation. Remarkably, it turns out that the White House has missed half of the deadlines legally required by the ACA. And some of those deadlines remain unmet to this day.

Barack Obama

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