Health Care at Risk
Health Care at Risk
Indivisible 1431 hosted a panel discussion on October 12 to address changes to healthcare under the current administration. You can check it out on YouTube. The information the panel presented was beyond a wake-up call. More like getting a bucket of ice water in the face.
The excellent panelists were:
Lynn Cowles, Director of Health and Food Justice, Every Texan
Dr. Christine Eady Mann, family practice doctor, political activist, former Congressional candidate
Dr. Karen Van Matre Smith, award-winning family medicine specialist with published research
Jan Lance, President, Austin Chapter of Texas Alliance of Retired Americans (moderator)
Thanks to the Big Ugly Bill (BUB), aka HR1, Medicaid will largely be dumped on to the states. This could put Texas on the hook for as much as $700 billion (yes with a “B”) for SNAP, noted moderator Lance. She added that the Legislature could kill SNAP, if the Lege finds that cost exorbitant. Think they won’t?
Remember: Texas already has the highest uninsured rate for adults and also for kids.
Fighting “waste, fraud and abuse” is the alleged rationale for many of the initiatives from the Trump Administration that are destructive to healthcare for everyday Americans. But it’s based on false assumptions.
“We don’t really have beneficiary fraud in Medicaid or in Medicare. It’s hard enough to get into these systems,” said Ms. Cowles.
While praising the good things Texas insurance companies provide, Ms. Cowles pointed out that most waste, fraud, and abuse in health care systems comes from either insurance companies or providers.
Nationally, Medicaid pays for about 60% of nursing home residents, and that might be higher in Texas. As RFK Jr and his flunky Dr Mehmet Oz savage Medicaid, will grandma wind up in the street?
It is not only health professionals and patients who are concerned. Dr Eady Mann reported that at least one hospital sports ACA QR Codes in patient rooms. This is encouragement for patients to call the feds with their concerns.
“When a healthcare entity encourages patients to call their Congressmen, they’re in trouble,” Dr. Eady Mann said. “It’s mind blowing to me.”
If you are not on Medicare or Medicaid, are you optimistic about the future of your healthcare benefits? Not so fast, cautioned Dr. Eady Mann.
The American healthcare system centers around Medicare. If Medicare drops benefits – Would you be surprised if it did? Not me – private insurance companies will follow suit.
Dr. Eady Mann, a longtime proponent of single-payer healthcare, said she was surprised when running for office by many people’s opposition to the single payer idea. They mistakenly believed that single payer would upend their employer-provided health insurance.
“It’s not enough to be a healthcare voter,” she said. “You must talk to neighbors and friends.”
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