Oct 14 2008
The Price of Health Care
Much debate has been made in the race for the Presidency about the future of American health care. it doesn’t take a genious to see that it’s all screwed up.
Now, some would say that handing it to the government to fix it does not inspire confidence.
Obama responded that John McCain seems pretty happy with his government funded health care.
And, he was probably right.
But today, Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes began a series of town hall meetings around the state focusing on the problems of state-funded healthcare, specifically the Illinois Medicaid program.
Now, to be fair, we have to mention here that the state of Illinois was, last week, just under $2 billion and 42 days behind on its bills. That’s 42 days after it reaches the comptroller’s office for payment. Before that, it spent as long as three months (maybe more) getting kicked around in the various state agencies before being approved for payment.
So, doctotrs aren’t taking Medicaid. There is no neurologist within 100 miles of my hometown that takes it and few other specialists. There is one company that takes the Medicaid card for glasses for children in the southern 11 or 12 counties of Illinois. Don’t like the Marion Eye Center? Then, pay for the glasses yourself.
Primarily, it’s specialists that are turning down the Medicaid card, but the longer the budget crisis continues, the fewer doctors accept it. Two years ago, when the state was only about $500 million behind on its bills and I still worked for the Marion Eye Center, they hadn’t been paid in more than 6 months and the state owed them close to $2 million.
It makes it hard for a relatively small business (less than 200 employees) to stay in business when they aren’t getting paid.
Imagine how much that has increased now.
Comptroller Hynes was not looking for an argument against state-funded health care, but was seeking to put a human face on the raw numbers. He thought maybe it would make his fellow politicians notice the crisis that is brewing.
I hope it works, but somehow, i expect more rhetoric from the likes of McCain. I expect that we’ll hear once again that the working poor choose not to have health care, choosing to spend their income elsewhere (like on food and gas).
I hope I’m wrong and that while we are looking at the cost of saving our economy we also take a good hard look at the cost of saving lives.
