Vegetables aren't food. Vegetables are what food eats.
Made In America
From Scottish Parts
All Kids Already Dealt With
11:42 pm, 7/11/06
Governor Blagojevich's latest healthcare innovation, "All Kids", is a huge success:
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Healthcare and Family Services says so far about 45,000 kids have signed up.So, the State of Illinois hasn't actually done much, they've just spent huge amounts of money creating a new program because they weren't competent to properly promote awareness of the pre-existing ones.
That includes 40,000 who already qualified for state coverage but hadn't signed up and 5,000 kids who didn't qualify until All Kids was created.
The state has now teamed up with the Chicago White Sox to get the word out. This is almost as great as the wildly promoted ISave-RX program, which, despite being projected to attract 1,500,000 senior citizens to buy Canadian drugs, had, months later, an actual enrollment of less than 1% of that number.
Physicians remain not just skeptical, but scared:
"We are extremely, extremely worried about whether the program will run smoothly enough to allow access to care," said Dr. Peter Eupierre, president of the Illinois State Medical Society, a physicians group.It should be pointed out that since most state medical assistance programs target the poor, a significant number of people "added" to the plans are likely to be people who have been driven to poverty by Blagojevich's policies. The public would be better served by policies that eliminate the need for 450,000 people to be on government-sponsored health plans.
...Many experts question whether Illinois is ready to make good on its promise of health care for all children while simultaneously implementing two major new programs affecting most of the state's nearly 2 million Medicaid recipients.
Along with All Kids, the state [rolled out] a new disease management program Saturday for 160,000 Medicaid members with costly chronic conditions such as diabetes and asthma. Beginning next year, it will make a form of managed medical care known as primary-care case management mandatory for 1.2 million members.
"We're pretty well-prepared. We know how to do expansions," said Anne Marie Murphy, head of the Illinois Medicaid program, noting that Blagojevich has added 450,000 people to government-sponsored health plans in Illinois since he took office.
More importantly, though, they really seem to not know how to do expansions, because they apparently haven't bothered to clue in their most important partners, the doctors themselves:
"There are still a lot of things we don't know and a lot of questions we have," Eupierre said. On Wednesday, the chairman of his organization's board of directors sent a letter to Barry Maram, director of Illinois' Department of Healthcare and Family Services, asking for more detailed information.Illinois health care will soon run almost as smoothly as Canada's.
"We would like to know, if we need to make a referral, how will that work?" Eupierre said "What number will we have to call? Will we have to fax documents? Will we have to discuss the case with someone from the state? How long will that take? Or can we do this online? None of those details are available yet, and that's frustrating."
Leading the list of concerns is whether the state can persuade doctors to participate in All Kids and the other changes it is making. Without a large network of participating physicians, access to medical care will be compromised and new medical management strategies for Medicaid won't work, experts note.The state currently owes providers in excess of 1.5 billion dollars.
The problem is, doctors across Illinois are increasingly reluctant to work with Medicaid because of the state's long delays in paying medical bills, said Vince Keenan, executive director of the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians...
The state has tried to ease concerns by assuring pediatricians treating All Kids patients that it will pay them in 30 days. But doubts are widespread.
"The state has promised providers time and time again that it will pay our bills promptly, and they just don't do it," Pescatore said.
Question: When doctors refuse the Governor's "insurance" and angry families want their money back, how will that work? What number will they have to call? Will they have to fax documents? Will they have to discuss the case with someone from the state? How long will that take? Or can they do that online?
at 08:53 AM, 7/13/06
Aaron,
What policies should the Governor be supporting to eliminate the need for government supported health care? Having known people who died because they didn't have the money or insurance to pay for treatment, I'd surely love to see an alternative to the current mess. Please understand that I'm sincere in this question. I'm not being sarcastic.
Aaron,
What policies should the Governor be supporting to eliminate the need for government supported health care? Having known people who died because they didn't have the money or insurance to pay for treatment, I'd surely love to see an alternative to the current mess. Please understand that I'm sincere in this question. I'm not being sarcastic.
Aaron at 07:52 PM, 7/13/06
That said, he could start focusing on actual economic growth instead of fake growth brought on by using taxpayer dollars to bribe outside companies to build in a hostile business environment. In a healthy business environment, where businesses have to compete for employees, health insurance isn't exactly hard to come by.
Instead, Illinois ranked in at 49th in overall job growth, while the welfare caseload (including those who need state healthcare) has skyrocketed by about 10%. Illinois is, quite literally, seeing one of the worst economic performances in America today.
The only solution Blagojevich has offered is hiring tens of thousands of people directly into state employment to build highways that aren't really needed, because apparently, building a state where people want to do business is out of the question.
Granted, he's overseen much of the state's descent into the abyss (check out statistics on the state's average household income since Jim Edgar left office), but that doesn't mean he should parrot Depression-era programs when the problem is entirely within the state's grasp to solve.
If you want to get people off welfare and government aid programs, get them decent, paying jobs and restore the state's educational infrastructure to prepare them for it.
(Illinois enjoys one of the worst high school dropout rates nationwide. Blagojevich claims that the state has hit a 10 year best in that metric, but that number is still terrible compared to other states, and education leaders have complained that number is padded by the new law effectively requiring high schools to keep students on the books until they're 17, regardless of whether they show up or not. It's worth noting that Illinois has the "priviledge" of spending one of the largest sums per student nationwide, but getting some of the worst performance from their education system. With the collapse of the state's budget, the Governor has proposed looting emergency services, highways, parks, and health care funds to keep the schools running.)
So, really, it's almost not a question of what Illinois should be doing, which, if Illinois didn't have a muppet in the Executive Mansion (or at least a muppet who was willing to live in the Executive Mansion, as governors are wont to do, instead of flying himself and his staff between Springfield and Chicago at taxpayer expense) would be obvious, but of why this is the spectacularly wrong thing to do.
The realities of the situation make it all too apparent that not only does this program do nothing, but Blagojevich knows it does nothing, and has no interest in actually doing anything material. He wants national headlines as the guy who insured all Illinois children, just like he got national headlines as the guy who let senior citizens buy cheap Canadian drugs, despite the reality that senior citizens ended up not really being all that interested in it. Perhaps in his mind, he still harbors his fantasty of a Presidential bid, despite having, in several public opinion surveys over the years, taken the title of America's Least Popular Democrat.
This is a man who got in hot water for pirating Department of Corrections resources to prepare reports on how local media outlets across the state were portraying him, and who had a man in his massive security entourage assigned to carry his hairbrush. (Moreover, this is a man who, when forced to give up his security entourage and asked how it felt to visit another state with a local state police escort like any other Governor, lamented that "nobody knew who I was".)
All Kids is about image, not accomplishment. Blagojevich knows that the State of Illinois cannot pay for this program, and that it will not pay for it. The state owes 1.5 billion dollars in backlogged debts to health care service providers already, and, in one instance, sent a pharmacist a check for (I believe) seven dollars and change as a "payment" on a two million dollar debt they'd accrued.
People should be embarassed by what is happening here. I know I am, but when doctors refuse the bogus "insurance" the state is giving these kids to make up for their spectacular failures in almost every other field of endeavor, Blagojevich will just blame the evil, greedy physicians.
I'm one of many people who have left Illinois for the very real economic reasons that recent years have brought upon the state's population, and I haven't looked back.
What policies should the Governor be supporting to eliminate the need for government supported health care?Well, according to the statistics from the state, existing programs already took care of about 90% of the kids enrolled in this program, but the state never bothered to tell anybody that before they wasted resources building this new one.
That said, he could start focusing on actual economic growth instead of fake growth brought on by using taxpayer dollars to bribe outside companies to build in a hostile business environment. In a healthy business environment, where businesses have to compete for employees, health insurance isn't exactly hard to come by.
Instead, Illinois ranked in at 49th in overall job growth, while the welfare caseload (including those who need state healthcare) has skyrocketed by about 10%. Illinois is, quite literally, seeing one of the worst economic performances in America today.
The only solution Blagojevich has offered is hiring tens of thousands of people directly into state employment to build highways that aren't really needed, because apparently, building a state where people want to do business is out of the question.
Granted, he's overseen much of the state's descent into the abyss (check out statistics on the state's average household income since Jim Edgar left office), but that doesn't mean he should parrot Depression-era programs when the problem is entirely within the state's grasp to solve.
If you want to get people off welfare and government aid programs, get them decent, paying jobs and restore the state's educational infrastructure to prepare them for it.
(Illinois enjoys one of the worst high school dropout rates nationwide. Blagojevich claims that the state has hit a 10 year best in that metric, but that number is still terrible compared to other states, and education leaders have complained that number is padded by the new law effectively requiring high schools to keep students on the books until they're 17, regardless of whether they show up or not. It's worth noting that Illinois has the "priviledge" of spending one of the largest sums per student nationwide, but getting some of the worst performance from their education system. With the collapse of the state's budget, the Governor has proposed looting emergency services, highways, parks, and health care funds to keep the schools running.)
So, really, it's almost not a question of what Illinois should be doing, which, if Illinois didn't have a muppet in the Executive Mansion (or at least a muppet who was willing to live in the Executive Mansion, as governors are wont to do, instead of flying himself and his staff between Springfield and Chicago at taxpayer expense) would be obvious, but of why this is the spectacularly wrong thing to do.
The realities of the situation make it all too apparent that not only does this program do nothing, but Blagojevich knows it does nothing, and has no interest in actually doing anything material. He wants national headlines as the guy who insured all Illinois children, just like he got national headlines as the guy who let senior citizens buy cheap Canadian drugs, despite the reality that senior citizens ended up not really being all that interested in it. Perhaps in his mind, he still harbors his fantasty of a Presidential bid, despite having, in several public opinion surveys over the years, taken the title of America's Least Popular Democrat.
This is a man who got in hot water for pirating Department of Corrections resources to prepare reports on how local media outlets across the state were portraying him, and who had a man in his massive security entourage assigned to carry his hairbrush. (Moreover, this is a man who, when forced to give up his security entourage and asked how it felt to visit another state with a local state police escort like any other Governor, lamented that "nobody knew who I was".)
All Kids is about image, not accomplishment. Blagojevich knows that the State of Illinois cannot pay for this program, and that it will not pay for it. The state owes 1.5 billion dollars in backlogged debts to health care service providers already, and, in one instance, sent a pharmacist a check for (I believe) seven dollars and change as a "payment" on a two million dollar debt they'd accrued.
People should be embarassed by what is happening here. I know I am, but when doctors refuse the bogus "insurance" the state is giving these kids to make up for their spectacular failures in almost every other field of endeavor, Blagojevich will just blame the evil, greedy physicians.
I'm one of many people who have left Illinois for the very real economic reasons that recent years have brought upon the state's population, and I haven't looked back.
Having known people who died because they didn't have the money or insurance to pay for treatment...Given that ER's can't refuse treatment on this basis and that virtually all hospitals eventually write off the care of patients who can't pay (a major reason the rest of us get billed so much), it would be extraordinarily difficult to actually find yourself in a position where you die because you're uninsured. (Not saying it's impossible, but extremely difficult, at least in the last several decades.)
at 09:03 AM, 7/17/06
Aaron,
Thank you for taking the time and effort to reply to my question. I think, though, that there's a limit to what even the governor can do (though I agree he should be doing a lot more) given that when all else is equal that it's still a lot cheaper for companies to move their manufacturing operations to Mexico.
Regarding the two who died, I do not want to go into details to protect their families' privacy. They've gone through enough hell already. However, it boiled down to their not being able to afford the high-priced treatments they needed for their diseases. It's not as if they were tossed into an alley and left to die, but they could not afford the optimum treatment recommended. As you know, doctors modify treatment plans based upon their patients' ability to pay. In fact, some doctors will not even see you as a patient if you have the "wrong" kind of insurance.
That's why I wish we could come up with a better alternative than the current system.
Aaron,
Thank you for taking the time and effort to reply to my question. I think, though, that there's a limit to what even the governor can do (though I agree he should be doing a lot more) given that when all else is equal that it's still a lot cheaper for companies to move their manufacturing operations to Mexico.
Regarding the two who died, I do not want to go into details to protect their families' privacy. They've gone through enough hell already. However, it boiled down to their not being able to afford the high-priced treatments they needed for their diseases. It's not as if they were tossed into an alley and left to die, but they could not afford the optimum treatment recommended. As you know, doctors modify treatment plans based upon their patients' ability to pay. In fact, some doctors will not even see you as a patient if you have the "wrong" kind of insurance.
That's why I wish we could come up with a better alternative than the current system.
Comment Policy: Irrelevant or obscene posts, including ad hominem attacks, SPAM, crazed ranting, and threats of violence may be removed at the owner of this site's discretion.
