Posted on 03/29/2007 10:49:52 AM PDT by Mike Bates
Feeling good? Go shopping. Democrats in the Minnesota state Senate want to give publicly insured patients $20 gift cards to stores such as Target as an incentive to follow their doctor's orders.
Sen. Linda Berglin, who leads the health budget panel, is betting that it will pay off for the state to sink $1 million into incentives for diabetics who control their blood sugar and smokers who quit.
"It's not a huge amount of money, but I think it'll have a lot of impact," said Berglin. "These quality guidelines are not reached simply by the doctor. There has to be the patient involved in it, too."
Gov. Tim Pawlenty last year established the QCare program, which offers bonuses to health plans and providers that score well on treating costly chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease.
Giving out gift cards might bring the state closer to achieving the QCare goals, Berglin said. The proposal would apply to patients covered by subsidized programs including the MinnesotaCare plan for the working poor.
It was unclear Wednesday whether there would be restrictions on what gift card recipients could buy with them.
Be more effective to just cut off the patient if they don't follow the doctor's orders.
Oh, the humanity!
It never is, when it's NOT yours!
When your definition of compassion is giving the needy someone else's money, the sky's the limit.
Dear Lord, deliver us...
sw
I think we'll have to deliver ourselves from such flakes.
Our civil masters view us as livestock. Put out some salt licks so that we get the minerals we need during the winter; give us "treats" if we do what they want us to.
I just sent this gal an online "suggestion". Sure, you should never send an email in anger - whatever!:
I just read an article that our tax-and-spend misrepresentatives (with you at the head in this case) are hard at work trying to find more ridiculous things to spend our money on; now you want to spend $1mil on gifts for people who are already getting their gift, which is QCare. Un-freakin' believable.
Let's see...these folks get on the QCare program, then turn around and don't bother to follow doctors orders. The solution, madame, is to kick those people off the program. If you don't care about your health enough to follow a doctor's orders, a $20 gift certificate to Target isn't going to change your life.
The GIFT is QCare. These people have already RECEIVED the gift. If they don't want the gift, they'll get sick again. If they use the gift properly, it keeps on giving in better health. A gift that keeps on giving requires no additional gift.
How about a gift to Minnesotans who DON'T use your socialist programs? Lower taxes, perhaps?? Oooooh, but then you wouldn't have enough power and couldn't be our Mommy State anymore. Poor little deprived politicians. Let me get my crying towel.
"$1mil isn't a huge amount" the article quotes - pardon me, but my school district is sticking everyone with more property taxes again because Minnesota "can't afford" the schools any more than the residents can; not that they actually need the money with classes like "Race in America" and "Environmental Science" where the assignments are counting black people in commercials and watching the Al Gore movie.
Your gift certificate idea is stupid and just another Al Gore movie. I demand that you stop this. I can't think of nice words to describe my disgust at the current crop of Minnesota politicians in office. This latest thing just made me sick. Maybe I should sign up for QCare. Send me a gift certificate for $1mil and I'll think about it.
Don't bother responding, since I'm guessing it will be the usual liberal Minnesotan gobblety gook. On the other hand, I can always post your expected insipid response online for a laugh.
(Signed, me)
Where's Jesse Ventura when you need him?
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