tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2010-03-24:/ludwi109/myblog//12041 In section 2001, the health reform legislation passed by the United States House of Representatives and the Senate will be able to expand the Medicaid program to cover all of the lowest-income Americans. What is Medicaid? Medicaid is a program that is funded by both federal and state governments. This program covers the medical care for all individuals who cannot afford the high costs of health care. In order to receive Medicaid, people have to meet certain criteria in order to receive the funding which mainly means they have to possess extremely small amounts of money. Each individual state maintains their own program which allows them to set different criteria for the program. As lawmakers continue to figure out how to proceed with health reform issues, the Medicaid expansion will continue to be defined through President Obama’s proposals. The bill states that Obama’s proposal will extend Medicaid to all individuals at or below 133% of the federal poverty line. If this number seems extremely low, it is a sad truth that it is very hard to receive Medicaid if a person has even the slightest amount of money. The implications on this change will mainly extend coverage to adults who are currently ineligible for Medicaid. This establishment should create coverage based on family status. Eliminating the historical exclusion of adults without dependent children from Medicaid is a key step in reducing the number of low income families that are uninsured in the United States of America. I agree completely with income based eligibility in order to reach public coverage in order to make Medicaid a cost-effective source of health coverage for low income Americans. From reading parts of the bill, I feel that expanding all of this coverage will ultimately help out the lower class immensely. Even though the majority of this class is considered to be working, they are all too poor to attain personal or company insurance due to limited financial funds which will positively impact these people. One red flag that came to my mind immediately was at what price? With the health care reform recently being passed, over 500 billion dollars will be invested into this program which does not put me at ease at all! A percentage of this amount of dollars will directly fund this bill but I am very hesitant to jump on this plan due to the financial suicide that it could potentially place in our country. Tax payer dollars will elevate. How much? I am not sure and I do not know if anybody knows the exact amount. 550 Billion dollars worth of Medicare is coming out of fraud, waste, and redistribution of care. So if this problem has been going on for so long, why wouldn’t we already be doing something to get on top of this? If we can answer these questions in a positive direction toward our health care policy, I feel this bill should have great impact on the lowest income population. From reading parts of the bill, I feel that expanding all of this coverage will ultimately help out the lower class immensely. Even though the majority of this class is considered to be working, they are all too poor to attain personal or company insurance due to limited financial funds which will positively impact these people. One red flag that came to my mind immediately was at what price? With the health care reform recently being passed, over 500 billion dollars will be invested into this program which does not put me at ease at all! A percentage of this amount of dollars will directly fund this bill but I am very hesitant to jump on this plan due to the financial suicide that it could potentially place in our country. Tax payer dollars will elevate. How much? I am not sure and I do not know if anybody knows the exact amount. 550 Billion dollars worth of Medicare is coming out of fraud, waste, and redistribution of care. So if this problem has been going on for so long, why wouldn’t we already be doing something to get on top of this? If we can answer these questions in a positive direction toward our health care policy, I feel this bill should have great impact on the lowest income population. Spencer Ludwig http://www.sharedprosperity.org/bp190.htm http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20100223_6226.php?mrefid=site_search Movable Type Enterprise 4.31-en