Medicaid. Is it being abused?

Specialties Emergency

Published

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 Public Health, DEI.

If I recall correctly, nicotine patches are very expensive. If this doctor would've written a script for an insured patient for one of those patches and refused the Medicaid patient, he was practicing discriminatory care and should be reported. And grannynurse's point about the higher costs of treating COPD and cancer are right on point. Talk about being penny wise and pound foolish! Refusing to prescribe patches makes as much sense as refusing to prescribe birth control (although, for some reason, I have a feeling these people would be only to happy to prescribe that)

W
Specializes in Public Health, DEI.
The federal poverty guidelines DON'T apply in Massachusetts when it applies to MEDICAID. You can make 150% of the federal povery guideline, own your own home if it's worth less than $400,000 market value (if you, your spouse or your disabled adult child lives in it),and own a car worth $8000 or less. Please check your facts-I did w/a social worker. You said the cost of an OTC script is the world to her, but like I said--IT'S CHEAPER THAN HER 2 PACK A DAY HABIT!!!!! And it is up to me when it's for something unnecessary b/c I pay for it even though she is able-bodied, besides-I QUIT COLD TURKEY!

Sorry, but the way you quit smoking has nothing whatsoever to do with decisions regarding the care of others. Nor should your feelings about how much you pay in taxes. The only consideration here should be professional ones, and frankly, you've admitted freely that you allow your personal feelings to enter into it.

The federal poverty guidelines DON'T apply in Massachusetts when it applies to MEDICAID. You can make 150% of the federal povery guideline, own your own home if it's worth less than $400,000 market value (if you, your spouse or your disabled adult child lives in it),and own a car worth $8000 or less. Please check your facts-I did w/a social worker. You said the cost of an OTC script is the world to her, but like I said--IT'S CHEAPER THAN HER 2 PACK A DAY HABIT!!!!! And it is up to me when it's for something unnecessary b/c I pay for it even though she is able-bodied, besides-I QUIT COLD TURKEY!

You are perfectly within your rights to complain to high heaven here on the board that you hate this, but you are out of bounds to decide you aren't going to let the doc know of her request. You are not judge and jury of the patients care. You are being unprofessional and providing substandard care based upon your political beliefs.

Also, it is irrelivent that you quit cold turkey. It sounds like you cannot understand or appreciate those in a different situation than your own.

You ought to be reported and hopefully eventually you will be.

While you may feel justified in your comment to the smoking patient, I tend to view it as a missed opportunity to help someone take the appropriate step towards quiting her nicotine addiction. And I use the word addiction because it is a physical addiction. I guess to some, it is more important to save a few of the tax payers dollars. It will show up in higher costs, when the patient begins to suffer from COPD or cancer, now will it not?

Grannynurse

L

just because a person is broke does not mean they have to look it. i understand the whole idea of brand new cars and jewelry and this used to upest me to, but i realize that you never know what life experiences a person has had and it is unfair to judge them off looks and possesions alone. when i was a medical assistant( a long time ago) i had to apply for financial aid. i was an independent student, living alone, no children and no help from my parents. when i sat down with the counselor she made a comment about my coach purse and said that if i could afford an expensive purse like that, i obviously could afford the tuition. she pointed out that she did not have a coach purse and she worked full time. she also assumed i had children. i politely told that idiot that the purse was a gift form my grandparents for my birthday and that i lived alone with no dependents. well let me tell ya....she apologized after picking her face off the ground. she went on to explain about other girls in the program and how they had this and that and were applying for financial aid. she was making assumptions and generalizations for alot of reasons i don't care to discuss (it will be a whole other thread). i can't concern myself with what other people APPEAR to have. sometimes the more people have is just an indication of how much debt they have. i mean, how well can you really live off a medicaid check? a nice car and jewelry does not always equate a nice quality of life.

Thank you for your comments. I am a nursing student with three children, I work part time but that still qualifies me for food stamps and medicaid. I think it is NO-ONE's business what my situation is---especially the nurse that may be providing me with hospital care. You are missing the point. Mind your own business people. Concentrate and focus on the patients health care issues and not their jewlery nor their insurance issues. The government wants us to focus on welfare and medicaid--but in the grand scheme of things what we spend is smaller than you think. How about the billions of dollars a day we spend on the war?---- Lets focus on the patients not their moral compass. Thats my :twocents:

Y
Like I said to the nursing student- I quit cold turkey. That was when I went to the ER one night (lips blue, SOB) and the MD told my very stupid self to quit smoking b/c now I had the dx of asthma. It killed me to do it and I STILL want a butt!

But, just like when the MD told my fat ass to go on a diet, I just did what had to be done and controlled myself. I'd love a bowl of the ice cream that my kids are eating right now, but too bad, I've exceeded my caloric limit for the day!

Just b/c accepting personal responsibility is no fun doesn't mean we don't have to do it!

People are different. Some need more help than others. This goes back to my comment about not understanding those different than yourself.

I had a pt today who wnted me to get the MD to write a script for a nicotine patch. I told he "Oh no honey, you don't need a script for that-you can buy it over the counter!" She told me she knew this but if the MD gave her a script, then Medicaid would pay for it and it would be free (free for HER, I think she meant!). I told her that the patch would be MUCH cheaper than two packs of cigarettes a day. She didn't ask for the script again. I should've told her to do what I did-quit cold turkey!

:stone

P
Different than me? I could tell you stories about my childhood that would make your hair stand on end! Instead of saying poor me, I act w/the morals of someone who had a priviledged upbringing.

Good for you. I'm glad you are, and that you are proud of that. I mean that *sincerely*. You appear to lack the ability to understand those different than yourself however. It's not a black and white matter. Go ahead, have the last word now. :rolleyes:

Specializes in Public Health, DEI.
Different than me? I could tell you stories about my childhood that would make your hair stand on end! Instead of saying poor me, I act w/the morals of someone who had a priviledged upbringing.

Didn't hit stop button in time!

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