A Medicaid miracle?

New York has few budget-busters as big as Medicaid, the health-care program for the "poor" that now covers one-fifth of all state residents at costs that have grown by fully 80 percent over the past decade -- to a staggering $1 billion per week.

Amazing, then, that the task force appointed by Gov. Cuomo to rewrite the Medicaid rules may have come up with a formula that will finally begin to bring the program under control.

Consider: The plan cuts program spending by nearly $1 billion compared to the current fiscal year and some $2.5 billion from projected program growth for 2011-12.

More amazing still: New York's health-care cartel -- the hospitals and the health-care-workers union, which in the past have joined forces to make Medicaid matters worse -- has signed on to this sweeping overhaul.

It "resulted in pain, but it was shared pain," said George Gresham, president of Local 1199.

Added Kenneth Raske, head of the Greater New York Hospital Association: "This is a historic day by any stretch of the imagination."

Not that the task force was without dissent -- Assemblyman Dick Gottfried, as compliant a health-cartel lapdog as can be imagined, reflexively whimpered that it was "unconstitutional," whatever that means, and abstained from the final vote.

“New York has few budget-busters as big as Medicaid, the health-care program for the “poor” that now covers one-fifth of all state residents at costs that have grown by fully 80 percent over the past decade — to a staggering $1 billion per week. “

“Consider: The plan cuts program spending by nearly $1 billion compared to the current fiscal year and some $2.5 billion from projected program growth for 2011-12.”

It cuts $1 billion from a $50 billion program. Whoa!

I have never understood medicare to begin with.

I have paid BC&BS all of my life and still do, but when I turned 65 Medicare became my primary. Why?
I didnt ask for it. I am still paying BC&BS.

I didnt mind the co-pay when I was younger on BC&BS and I ca pay it now. Wouldn’t it have been better if BC&BS had just raised my fee by the 96 a month Medicare charges me and stayed my primary?

“Wouldn’t it have been better if BC&BS had just raised my fee by the 96 a month Medicare charges me and stayed my primary?”

Shhhhhh. Don’t tell progressives, but Medicare is the most inefficient health insurance plan on the plan. Progressives laud it for its administrative efficiency, but fail to acknowledge that NINETY PERCENT of Medicare beneficiaries have some form of supplemental coverage. Imagine if an employer were offering a health benefits plan so lousy that 90% of the workers felt motivated to go out and purchase another health insurance policy to fill in all the gaps. Thus, when you combine the administrative costs of Medicare with the administrative costs of these supplemental plans, 90% of Medicare beneficiaries easily are generating administrative costs that exceed those for a typical privately insured worker.

How to explain this puzzling arrangement? Progressives abhor private health insurance and strongly believe that a universal entitlement would be better protected politically against being cut back or eliminated. Thus, they are perfectly will to let taxpayer dollars be used to subsidize the care of Warren Buffett and other wealthy seniors in order to ensure the “solidarity” of a universal entitlement. As well, they feel that means-testing is demeaning. They’d rather give all citizens something as a right than to devise programs that are far less expensive by being restrictive to those who are financially needy (on grounds they don’t want the latter recipients to “feel bad” about being on the public nickel).

So to answer your question, OF COURSE it would make a lot more sense for you to keep the plan you’ve had for years and not have to deal with a new health plan that suddenly—through the coercion of government—is now your primary payer. But don’t ever expect Progressives to see things that way; they will do anything in their power to keep Medicare exactly as it is.

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