Word: medicaid
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...just begun. This time, though, Republicans are likely to be making as much noise as Democrats. As the final proposal headed for defeat on the Senate floor last week, George W. Bush's Health and Human Services Department was granting a federal waiver so that three Governors can use Medicaid funds to expand drug coverage to poor seniors who don't otherwise qualify. One of the lucky Governors: Jeb Bush of Florida. Helping is what family's all about...
...Mississippians can take heart in one fact: most states are going through similar crises. Medicaid has grown too expensive, and with the economy only starting to recover, state budgets can't bear the costs anymore. This dilemma arises just as Americans need Medicaid more than ever before. Last year, Medicaid covered 44 million Americans at a cost of $224 billion, with states kicking in 42% of that money. During the same period, 2 million Americans lost their employer-provided health insurance. So just as more people need help, states are being forced to either limit eligibility for coverage or pare...
...Health care is always a leading concern to voters, so when times are flush, governors and legislators are happy to expand Medicaid with all the extra money in their coffers. It wasn't always this way: when Lyndon Johnson first proposed the concept, Medicaid was designed as limited health coverage for Americans on welfare. At that time, more than a third of Americans didn't have any form of health insurance. Medicaid was a welcome solution. But as health care costs skyrocketed over the last 15 years, Medicaid wasn't providing enough help. Many Americans who weren't on welfare...
...federal government wasn't doing anything to help, but it allowed states to test their own solutions. States expanded services and coverage. But as costs continued to rise, Medicaid budgets ballooned. In 1987, the average state spent 8% of its general budget on Medicaid. A decade later it was 15%. Now it's even higher, rivaling education as the single greatest state expenditure. And when all those tax revenues provided by the booming '90s economy dried up, Medicaid costs became impossible to pay - leading to dilemmas like Mississippi's. Neither the governor nor the legislature wants to be the villain...
...National Governors Association and other state government lobbying groups have been begging for enough cash to shore up Medicaid. The states also want Congress to change Medicaid rules to make the program more competitive with private health insurance and to allow better coverage. That's quite a list of demands, but the states feel they're entitled. After all, the federal government has done little to expand health coverage for Americans over the past 10 years. Even now, Congress and the President are still fighting over whether to allow people who already have health insurance to sue their carriers...