Congress thinks we're too stupid and the issue too complicated to convey to the public - so that no one will know the difference if they offer the uninsured Medicaid or Medicare.

The House HealthCare Reform Bill recently delivered by Nancy Pelosi, included a proposal to expand Medicaid to enroll an additional 20,000 recipients. The Senate is poised to put this in the combined bill, as a means to reach universal coverage. But no one has exposed that Medicaid is in shambles, costs the feds and the states billions...

AND

Medicaid is almost completely run(RIGHT NOW) by Private health insurance companies through out the US.  No one has exposed that these Medicaid Managed Care plans (subsidiaries of the major health plans) do not now have the infrastructure to provide care for the Medicaid enrollees they already have.  By expanding Medicaid and enrolling (through a mandatory program) an additional 20,000 recipients - taxpayers will be paying PRIVATE health insurance companies to provide the worst health insurance available in the US!!!

The deal is:  The public at large doesn't know the difference between MEDICAID and MEDICARE!!!!! 

MEDICARE for all YAAA!!!! It's what Grandma has.  It pays for her health care no matter what she needs.  And it's paid for by Everyone who works.  It comes out of the Social Security tax we pay on every dollar we make - we pay it so we will be guaranteed healthcare insurance when we reach 65.  It's not an entitlement - WE PAID FOR IT.

But MEDICAID for all? AAH!!!! NO WAY!!!  Medicaid is NOT Medicare.  It's what people on Welfare get.  It's paid for by the Federal government and the States, through many kinds of taxes.  It is under-funded and doctors hardly ever accept it - because the reimbursement rates are so low - no private doctor could earn a living on Medicaid patients - even the doctors who aren't greedy.  The only doctors who accept Medicaid are usually those who have no other choice - the worst of the worst.

But Congress is Banking that the Public doesn't know the difference between MEDICAID and MEDICARE and thus will think that giving 20,000 uninsured Americans MediCAID is a good thing.  The public will think "What's the difference?"  They won't object.

Everyone Needs to Know: MediCAID is a Scam; and it's run by the PRIVATE Health Insurance Industry!!!

Medicaid was privatized in the 90ies - when Clinton (thru HCFS - Bruce Vladik) issued 1915b waivers to states. These waivers allowed states to strip the freedom of choice clause out of Medicaid regulations - thus permitting mandatory enrollment of all Medicaid recipients into PRIVATE health plans.

i.e. Medicaid recipients can be asigned a health plan and a doctor.  If the bill that emerges from Congress does not alter Medicaid significantly, 20,000 new recipients will be forced into Private Medicaid health plans arbitraily. 

In the 90ies the private health insurance plans lined up to get State contracts to administer Medicaid, vowing to reduce costs - by using their clout to negotiate capitated rates with providers.  It all seemed sooo good...  Imagine: Medicaid recipients with Blue Cross insurance? Whoopi!!!  Until providers started pulling out. 

Doctors and hospitals refused to accept very low rates, the health insurance companies offered them to care for their Medicaid recipients.  The Poor Private plans just had to set up Medicaid only groups, so that their angry providers would not be obliged to take care of Medicaid recipients.  The only hitch was the Plans didn't have other networks of providers: doctors, clinics or hospitals, to cover the recipients they had already enrolled.

But - lucky for them - it didn't matter much, since Medicaid recipients either didn't use the health plans they were assigned to - or they didn't seek care at all. And what's more - they don't vote.  When the plans reported to the State's DOI and DOH they used fabricated provider networks and submitted thousands of fraudulent claims. And no one noticed and no one complained that taxpayers are paying these health plans billions for NOTHING. 

The message that needs to get out - Medicaid is NOT the answer.  Medicare would be - but Medicaid isn't.  Congress must not vote to enroll the uninsured into Medicaid.

Ask Congress if they would be willing to accept the same health benefits they are about to give to the uninsured through Medicaid.  No member of Congress would be willing to enroll in Medicaid as it is now. If they don't fix it, it will be a disaster.  And those who are forced to enroll in Medicaid - this lower to middle class group of uninsured - won't be happy with the results.  And they vote.

In other words - if the Congress proceeds to vote on an expansion of the existing Medicaid program - run by Private insurance companies - they will be creating a huge outcry from the masses who will find out that there are no providers or only bottom-feeding providers giving care. There will be no glory - no one will be glad to take credit for this disaster.  And only Democrats will be to blame.

Please HELP communicate this to All.  The President and the Democratic Party should not accept this proposal.  It is also the worst move they could make.  If anyone is truly concerned about getting heath care to more uninsured - enroll them into Medicare.  The only winners will be the Republicans and the Health Insurance Industry.

My information comes from personal involvement in the Medicaid Managed Care switch-over: through working with HCFA - creating PSAs to get their message out; through working on my own account and with the Mayor's Office of Managed Care in NYC, running health fairs; through working for CarePlus - one of the contracted plans in NYC; and through working on database management for the Medicaid Managed Care industry Nationally.