Thursday, August 03, 2006
Medicaid misinformation
[Laurie Dale Marshall, "Medicaid return," Letter to the editor, The Lawrence Journal-World, 3 August 2006.]
In her response to my earlier letter, "Medicaid woes," Kansas Health Consumer Coalition director Laurie Dale Marshall states that she believes I am "suggesting that Medicaid is a failure and is a misuse of public funds, citing the return of Kansas Medicaid money as the tip of the iceberg."
Of course, my letter says nothing of the sort. What it does say is that policymakers in Kansas cannot solely blame federal officials for their accounting problems and avoid restoring Medicaid to financial stability. Here's how my letter ends:
Unless Kansas policymakers institute reforms that address the fundamental flaws plaguing the program, Medicaid will remain on a course to bankrupt the state. Federal officials are open to and interested in creative solutions to Medicaid’s financial troubles, leaving the responsibility to follow through squarely on the shoulders of leaders here in Kansas.
For a lenghtier explanation of the current accounting problems facing Kansas Medicaid, see the op-ed "Shutting down Medicaid shell games." This viewpoint is consistent with all of the work of The Flint Hills Center on Medicaid - that the program was intended as a safety net for the truly needy but too often fails to provide quality care and is currently in deep financial trouble. Anyone genuinely seeking to empower Kansas health consumers must face up to the fact the Medicaid needs significant reform if it is to remain viable into the future.
[Michael Bond, "What's wrong with Medicaid in Kansas?," The Flint Hills Center, 26 December 2005.]
In her response to my earlier letter, "Medicaid woes," Kansas Health Consumer Coalition director Laurie Dale Marshall states that she believes I am "suggesting that Medicaid is a failure and is a misuse of public funds, citing the return of Kansas Medicaid money as the tip of the iceberg."
Of course, my letter says nothing of the sort. What it does say is that policymakers in Kansas cannot solely blame federal officials for their accounting problems and avoid restoring Medicaid to financial stability. Here's how my letter ends:
Unless Kansas policymakers institute reforms that address the fundamental flaws plaguing the program, Medicaid will remain on a course to bankrupt the state. Federal officials are open to and interested in creative solutions to Medicaid’s financial troubles, leaving the responsibility to follow through squarely on the shoulders of leaders here in Kansas.
For a lenghtier explanation of the current accounting problems facing Kansas Medicaid, see the op-ed "Shutting down Medicaid shell games." This viewpoint is consistent with all of the work of The Flint Hills Center on Medicaid - that the program was intended as a safety net for the truly needy but too often fails to provide quality care and is currently in deep financial trouble. Anyone genuinely seeking to empower Kansas health consumers must face up to the fact the Medicaid needs significant reform if it is to remain viable into the future.
[Michael Bond, "What's wrong with Medicaid in Kansas?," The Flint Hills Center, 26 December 2005.]
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