Pay Up

The budget bill that squeaked through the House a couple days ago contains bad news for thousands of Medicaid recipients, including those with disabilities.  States will now be able to impose premiums and co-pays on even the poorest enrollees.  Most of these co-pays will range from $1-$5 dollars, which might not seem like a lot of money to most of us.  It’s important to remember, though, that most Medicaid recipients live on a few hundred dollars a month and every few bucks that go towards co-payments are a few dollars less that go towards food or housing or other basic necessities.  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 65,000 people will be driven out of Medicaid because of their inability to pay these newly enacted premiums and co-pays. 

 

If anything, these cuts will make health care more expensive for everyone.  These people will not stop needing medical care.  They will present themselves at emergency rooms where they cannot be turned away.  Their conditions will generally be more severe and more expensive to treat because they lacked access to preventive care.  And the costs for treating those people will be reflected in the higher health care premiums and co-pays that everyone else will have to pay. 

 

Congress has never shown much aptitude for taking the long view of things.  However, the deliberate myopia behind these particular cuts is shameful.  They do nothing to address the long-term pressures that are ballooning Medicaid costs.  Instead, they simply delay the final reckoning for a few more years.