Here's a pretty good editorial in the Courier about Medicaid cuts in Kansas. This will force reductions in services to developmentally disabled in the cluster of community homes we have in Cowley County, not to mention the larger numbers of people, including seniors in nursing homes, who rely on Medicaid for health needs.
There is a paradox here in that we have created a system in which an entitlement program touches the lives of so many, and cutting it becomes not just about the poor but about the jobs of the people who help the poor. But the alternative, relying on charity to help the poor, creates beggar cities and third-world type poverty.
The cuts in Medicaid get less attention than schools or prisons, because the money goes to the poor and disabled, but it could have just as big an impact. It also shows why states don't like the part of the national health reform moving through Congress that would require a states to increase their share of Medicaid spending. The good news about that, though, is that it doesn't happen until 5 or 6 years from, now, so there is time to prepare.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Well, all states except Nebraska, will have to pay more. Maybe if we had a moderate Democrat in the Senate, Kansas could have gotten a sweetheart deal also.
Somehow, I feel that money for the developmentally disabled will come back in another form.
There simply is not a conscionable way to short fund that population. We can debate, as fair ground, the efficient use of funds for education, for maintenance and enhancement of state and municipal infra-structure and entitlements in soft issues.
There simply is a staple and justifiable expectation that we care for those who cannot aptly care for themselves.
I believe that the money will show up although it might become a new business approach just as when State hospitals were defunded and the community pods were implemented.
Let's see... the government is failing at running Medicaid and medicare, so let's let them run our entire healthcare system? Is that pretty much the liberal rallying cry at the moment?
Post a Comment