If you are poor or old or both and on a Government Funded Healthcare plan typically you will be receiving inferior care from doctors.  The doctors you see are getting paid at levels that border on volunteer work since the premiums and reimbursements the government pay is so low.  In fact, the system is so antiquated that doctors (i.e. internists) many times forgo prescribing additional help for the elderly in order to steer clear of having to deal with the paperwork, regulations, and consistent rejections of recommended care.

With President Obama in office, one of his first priorities is to pump $100 billion into Medicaid and Medicare, though with no obligations, therefore the same problems will continue.  A recent study by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that Medicaid patients with heart problems, which tend to be over whelming seniors, were more than 50% more likely to die after a coronary artery bypass than patients with private coverage.  The people conducting this survey suggested that this result came from poorer long term and follow up care.  Another study in the journal Ethnicity and Disease showed that senior Medicaid patients with unstable angina had worse care because they were unlikely to get timely interventions or to be treated at the better hospitals.

With these studies and others showing similar results, you would think the government would be doing what it can to change the system and erase these inequities.  Unfortunately even under the new presidential administration, these issues are not being addressed.

Another interesting survey showed that approximately 40% of geriatric doctors restrict access to Medicaid patients because the reimbursement rates are so low creating an even smaller number of specialists to help solve the medical problems of senior citizens.

New funds from the Obama Administration alone won’t fix the Government’s Funded Healthcare Plan’s woes since it will simply allow states to siphon monies intended for Medicaid be redirected into other programs. Without monitoring processes in place and even with the new Administration’s good intentions, it is going to take many years and a tremendous amount of dedication to change this failing system.  The only hope one has now is not to be poor or in need of care.

Shared with permission from American Care Mgr