Medicaid. Is it being abused?

Specialties Emergency

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Medicaid was a great idea when first introduced to assure that even the very poor could get quality health care. I just wonder when I see someone drive up in a newer car come up to the triage desk in designer clothes and lots of gold jewelry and they are on medicaid. I know of many who are the working middle class who are struggling to pay their own insurance premiums. Why do so many folks get a free ride? Or am I missing something here?

Specializes in Pediatrics.
Interesting that your posting states your only luxuries are cable and internet........you say you can't make ends meet....yet, will hold on to your cable and internet. A conservative total of those 2 bills is about $60 dollars/month....or $720/year.

As a mentioned in a subsequent post my parents pay my cable/internet and they are helping with my car note. I use internet for school (research and such for papers) and my basic cable is a luxury I can't afford but my kind parents are providing me. It is terribly difficult going from being able to live a comfortable life to having to decide between laundry detergent and dish washing liquid. My parents understand this, and while I don't expect them to take care of me, they still think I should not have to sit in a cold bare room with a bare lightbulb and a can of pork and beans because my husband fell upon unfortunate circumstances. Furthermore, I am going to school for my LPN and then RN, so it's not like I am making a life of my current situation.

:uhoh3: God bless you all, and I hope you never have to deal with a financial hardship. :)

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Specializes in RN Spanish Translator.

I agree with you Kiyasmom. Hard times can hit anyone! Choices!! It's hard when you have to decide on kotex or a bag of beans.

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kiyasmom...I agree and don't agree with your post. Actually, in your case I do because someone else is paying your cable for you. And I completely understand your situation.

If we were seriously down to nothing, the cable would be the first thing to go. For now, it is our only entertainment. I use the net for all things imagineable...research, friendship (big one since I can't get out much), contacting authorities at my school, etc. I can guarantee you that the second thing to go would be my computer though if I had to have money to put food in my kids' mouths. For right now, we are okay. In fact, Bry just got a promotion that will help some (but not much).

We are still filing bankruptcy and putting our medical bills (most of them) on it because we had no help with our exorbiant co-pay. We bust our buts to make ends meet and not have the kids know quite how bad things can be sometimes. (it's good for them to know *some* but not all) It's very insulting for people to come on here and question what each of us are doing. If someone was blatantly abusing the system it would be another story.

We would all be smart to think about what we would do if we were in that person's shoes. Everyone is different and has different priorities, no matter what each of us think they *should* be!

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I just hope that people will realize that the average family in America is about 2-3 paychecks away from being homeless. How many checks, if you lost your job, will it take for you to qualify for Medicaid. For most, 1 month. I believe there is a lot of abuse and I believe that it stems from the top. Our laws and rules are made with so many loopholes in it that some have figured out a way to abuse our system. It is tough being poor and it is very tough for a person to be making a lot of money and suddenly lose their job. I work in the ER and I see a lot of things that I could question. If the Medicaid rules say that you cannot be married to get assistance, then that couple is not going to get married so that there could be medical coverage for that baby. This will allow the woman to get prenatal services which we all know is important. Do you think this woman would still get prenatal services if she didn't have medicaid? Probably not and you know how dangerous that can be. Think about it....a woman giving birth to a baby with no medical history or interventions. Bad situation.

Just think again, how many paychecks are you from the POOR HOUSE?

Your post is the kind of families we are talking about that SHOULD receive coverage. Except for that woman who chooses not to get married so she can have health coverage. These are the people we need to get off of the system. Prenatal care or not. She chose to get pregnate without medical coverage. Pray through it or have an abortion. If she is not going to work to support herself and her child, then they are out in the streets to serve as an example of what happens to folks who choose to live off the system.

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I cannot agree with letting an innocent child be born in the streets. That's going a little too far. Maybe not letting the mother have the child after it's born...but not punishing the child for the stupidity of the mother.

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I really don't think this thread was meant to throw personal attacks at individuals. Its the system that is ill. No one can see thru the computer and see any one individuals situation.

Why cant middle income people get insurance? Many families are working two jobs, paying their taxes and can't afford health care coverage. That is what is really sad.

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Why cant middle income people get insurance? Many families are working two jobs, paying their taxes and can't afford health care coverage. That is what is really sad.

I don't get health insurance through my new job...I have 2 boys under 4...they are both fully insured ($15 office visit copay, $10 RX) NOT an 80/20 but a large HMO (exact same coverage when I worked for said HMO), for $75 per month each...That's a great deal, and quite affordable...

sean

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.

Thanks.

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We would not be having this discussion if the goverment did what it should do and provide healthcare to all its citizens.

Healthcare is a RIGHT not a LUXURY!!!

And if some people are having the goverment pay for something they should be doing for everyone, so be it!!

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Specializes in Hospice.

I just finished skimming thru this thread ... gotta go to work in a minute ... so I haven't read all posts carefully. Just wanted to point out that, although we can all point fingers at recipients who seem too well off to qualify for aid, I still believe the majority of the stolen aid money goes to greedy vendors. I remember back in the late 70's there was a big scandal in Massachusetts over "welfare queens" which provided the justification for beginning the purge of so-called "cheats" While the headline story was about a woman who bought a house in Florida with double-dipping to the tune of a few hundred thousand dollars, buried deep in the middle of the newspaper was another story of a psychiatrist who stole four million dollars in fraudulent billing!!! Those people in the welfare cadillacs are doing the same thing as the upper class cheats ... just not doing it well enough to hide it from the rest of us. Make no mistake ... there are plenty of summer homes by the water paid for with your taxes ... way more exensive than babies and benadryl!

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I just finished skimming thru this thread ... gotta go to work in a minute ... so I haven't read all posts carefully. Just wanted to point out that, although we can all point fingers at recipients who seem too well off to qualify for aid, I still believe the majority of the stolen aid money goes to greedy vendors. I remember back in the late 70's there was a big scandal in Massachusetts over "welfare queens" which provided the justification for beginning the purge of so-called "cheats" While the headline story was about a woman who bought a house in Florida with double-dipping to the tune of a few hundred thousand dollars, buried deep in the middle of the newspaper was another story of a psychiatrist who stole four million dollars in fraudulent billing!!! Those people in the welfare cadillacs are doing the same thing as the upper class cheats ... just not doing it well enough to hide it from the rest of us. Make no mistake ... there are plenty of summer homes by the water paid for with your taxes ... way more exensive than babies and benadryl!

Back in the mid-70s, I worked as a primary investigator with the NYSDOH, in NYC. I could make your hair curl with the number of physicians, administrators and nursing home operators that I and my partner investigated. And the number of trips I flew back from Florida to testify at their trials. The number of illegal providers far out distance the number of illegal individuals using Medicaid. Heck, one year my own dentist's took the state for more then three million dollards. If he had worked like he claimed, he would have had to work 34 hours a day.

Grannynurse:balloons:

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As someone who has struggled VERY hard to get to where I am in life, I find it difficult to comprehend the "desperately poor" people who live off of MY tax dollars while keeping internet and cable services. I didn't have either until after nursing school. Heck, for 7 months I had no phone.

It would be very easy for me to go on disability. I broke my back many years ago in a car accident, and have permanent spinal damage and pain because of it. I have an autoimmune disorder with chronic fatigue syndrome. It would be very easy for me to file the paperwork, go on disability at age 29, point to my medical reasons and sniffle while I eat the junk food my food stamps buy and watch cable and hang out on the internet.

But you know what? I was raised better than that.

It's a pity so many people weren't.

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