Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (41472)	3/16/2017 8:42:38 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Karen, do you think those who have enrolled in Medicaid think of it as an entitlement? I wonder whether a large proportion see it as a requirement imposed on them? Interesting question. It never occurred to me that anyone enrolled in Medicaid would think of it as a requirement. One does not have to sign up. One only has to sign up if one wants the benefit. Which makes it a benefit. To which one is entitled if one is in the class of eligibles. Suppose they put a requirement on Medicaid that the able-bodied put in five hours a month of community service as a prerequisite? How many would drop that coverage until they got very sick? Back before Medicare expansion and the effort to get people enrolled, apparently many did not sign up until they needed significant care and the hospital got them signed up. That would seem the rational thing to do. Once enrolled, however, there is no reason to drop coverage. There is no benefit in doing so and it requires some work, I presume, to get off the rolls so inertia would take over. That work would be less work than doing community service, of course, so the incentives would change. I don't know if Medicaid recipients routinely make rational choices. There is some thought out there in economics that the long-standing notion of people, in general, as rational entities isn't valid. As for how Medicaid recipients think, I am only guessing. I simply have no occasion to associate with them or any poor people. Never have had, not as an adult anyway. I have one cousin who I think was enrolled in Medicaid before she reached Medicare age. We never discussed it. So what do I know? Not sure why you're interested in getting people off the rolls. If they need medical help, they will stay on. If they don't, then they're not using services so it hardly matters that they are on the rolls. As for "entitlement," I was using the word in the federal budget sense, not in the sense of an individual feeling that he has a right to something. Once a group of people is awarded a government entitlement, a large part of the community feels that it can't renege or that those who want to renege are being unfair. They feel that way even if the affected group doesn't much care. To renege is not moral.

To: i-node who wrote (41472)	3/17/2017 3:25:53 PM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

<<Suppose they put a requirement on Medicaid that the able-bodied put in five hours a month of community service as a prerequisite? How many would drop that coverage until they got very sick?>> Hi I-Node. It's been awhile. When you made this statement, I got the impression you are thinking that people on Medicaid don't work? If so, this is not the case. Medicaid eligibility is based on income plus other things like assets in the bank, value of the home, and special health conditions, such as blindness, mental deficiencies, etc. There are numerous combinations of factors that determine an individual's eligibility. Most people should get assistance in ferreting out all the ways to maximize benefits because under the heading of Medicaid, there are many quirky separate programs. For example, one can earn or have income about twice as much if one is applying for a "temporary" Medicaid program. "Temporary Medicaid" would be situations such as pregnancy or cancer treatment or a severe accidental injury. At any rate, plenty of recipients also work and work full-time. My guess is that almost all who are able-bodied and under 65 are working. In states that expanded, an individual can earn up to $16,000. In states that did not expand, it drops down to around $12,000 of earned income but that person can also get the earned income tax credit and can get the Obamacare subsidies to use toward purchasing their own policy outside of the Medicaid system. So this creates kind of a wash, but those in states that did not expand probably end up better off in that they will find more docs and clinics that will accept their insurance. When I was younger, I helped, through doing church work, people in need to find either church welfare programs or state welfare programs that they would qualify for. So there was a time that I knew a lot about Arkansas Medicaid. In recent years I got familiar again when I helped a younger woman who was one of my mother's caregivers get on Medicaid when she got cancer. I was surprised by how much more generous Medicaid had become. She even got a stipend for travelling to and from chemo treatments, radiation, etc. It was either $20 or $40 a day.