My mom is disabled and had Medicaid before she had Medicare.
She had better insurance than we do! She had her prescribed vitamins paid for, picked her own doctor, had chiropractics and could see any specialist that she liked without a referral.
Medicaid is about to get a lot stingier. Obamacare mandates that the states expand their Medicaid-eligible population. The states that had traditional fee-for-service plans are moving to managed Medicaid plans (NY, for example). Reimbursement was never good under Medicaid, but it get worse. It will be hard for beneficiaries to find a doctor that will treat them. Medicaid is essentially a single payer health insurance system. Beneficiaries cannot pay more than their copay for any treatment- i.e. they can’t pay out of pocket to see a physician of their choice.