The Medicaid program taxes New York budgets

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle ^ | Original publication: March 28, 2004 | JAY GALLAGHER

[t_skoz]

The Medicaid program taxes New York budgets

By JAY GALLAGHER Albany Bureau (Original publication: March 28, 2004)

NORTH GREENBUSH, N.Y. — When she turned 100 last year, Gladys Dewitt felt well enough to get up and dance. She enjoyed her birthday cake as people made a fuss around her and a newspaper photographer snapped her picture. But she couldn't have what she really wanted for her birthday.

"I wanted to go home,'' she recalled recently, lying in her bed in the Van Rensselaer Nursing Home just a few miles from the state Capitol.

But like most of the 360 other residents of the county-run facility, she had no home to go back to. It had been sold long before, when she could no longer take care of herself.

Now, she depends on Medicaid, the taxpayer-supported health-care-insurance program, to pay for her care.

While she is well cared for, she is not happy to be where she is. Nor are taxpayers happy to be footing the bill.

Every day she has been at the nursing home, a little more than two years, Medicaid has paid the home $159.85, or more than $58,345 a year. Last year alone, nursing homes in New York got $7.4 billion in Medicaid funds to care for about 88,000 residents — about 78 percent of all people who live in nursing homes.

Exploding Medicaid costs are a problem everywhere in the country, but the problem is most severe in New York, which spends far more than any other state, about $42 billion — more than California and Texas combined, which together have three times as many people as New York.

[t_skoz]

This article came from the Gannett rags so this is an excerpt.

The article is pretty good, click on the source to read it in its entirety.

[t_skoz]

ping!

[cosine]

Thanks for the post. I'm interested in articles on how Medicaid is imploding NY budget. It has been a testbed state for a number of health "experiments" funded by the let's all depend on government for health care crowd.

[Mr. K]

DAMMMMMMMM!! No wonder all these fancy 'elderly care' facilities are springing up in NY.

Thanks for spending your grandchildrens money granny!

[t_skoz]

Let me offer a more libertarian solution: drastically cut government spending on Medicaid and Social Security. Make a "cut off" point, where folks under a certain age will not be covered by Social Security or Medicaid. We will still pay for the older people who are above the cutoff point.

Yes, there will probably be high rates of debt while this transition phase is in place, and who knows, it could be 20 years or longer. But ending Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid benifits is the only way to start rebuilding America as a truly free and prosperous Nation. I see no other way to bring personal responsibility and family duty back to this nation, while cutting government spending/waste and lowering taxes.

Who knows! It could even lead to long-term growth in NYS!

[newgeezer]

There was a time when the elderly who couldn't take care of themselves moved in with the family of one of their (grand)children.

Of course, back then, it was not as common for one to live long enough for that to happen. But, when it did, instead of being out chasing a buck, the woman of the house would actually be at home to care for her mother(-in-law).

[Jack Black]

I agree with the Libertarian solution suggested above. Bush is a failure to provide leadership on this issue, but then again he didn't run as a fiscal conservative. I guess the "compassionate" label means he's willing to impose even higher tax rates on my kids.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but where we're headed is not a great place.

[Styria]

New York unloads part of the cost on the counties. This has caused them to have trouble supporting sheriff's departments and other truly necessary things.

And as an EMT, I can tell you that nursing homes are not high-quality facilities.

[Clemenza]

Let's also not forget Pataki's courting of the health care workers union who keep pushing for MORE medicaid usage and his ads on television asking for more people to participate in Medicaid (in English AND Spanish).

If Pataki thinks that he can get the GOP nomination in 2008, he has another thing coming.

[The Mayor]

Good info here, all politicans need to endorse this..

Dave Penna is running for assembly instead of me

http://www.nytabor.com/