Medicaid in New York
Medicaid is a government health insurance given to those who are disabled, unemployed or low income. In the state of New York, there are nearly 60 million Americans that are either on Medicaid, or have children on the Children Health Insurance Program (CHIP) (Medicaid.gov). For those who need Medicaid, they are eligible for medical, dental, and eye care. There are certain physicians, dentists, and Ophthalmologists that except Medicaid; which for some may cause problems in getting the care they need (health.ny.gov).
In New York there are several ways you can apply for Medicaid. With today’s technology, you can go to your local department of social services website and apply online, you can go directly to your local department of social services department and apply in person, or you can apply by phone. When applying by phone, you will receive an application in the mail that you have to fill out. With that application you will have to submit verification of your disability, and or your income. If you apply online there is a link you can utilize to upload all the documents they ask for (ny.gov). Each state establishes and administers its own Medicaid program and determines the type, amount, duration, and scope of services covered within broad federal guidelines.
The Medicaid act began in 1965 when more and more people were having trouble paying for their medical bills. Since that time, Medicaid has come a long way with pros and cons. Some of the pros of having Medicaid are always being able to be seen by the emergency room, a physician that participates with Medicaid and prescriptions being paid for. The cons of having Medicaid is the time it takes for your physician to get paid, and not being eligible for name brand prescriptions; you are only eligible for generic brand medications (ny.gov.) The Federal government has given the states the authority to determine the amount of coverage, the duration of coverage, and the scope of which the insurance will cover. It is not uncommon to see states limiting the number of prescriptions, or shortening hospital stays or defining how many times a nurse can visit a patient’s home in one month. This call to power limits the coverage of Medicaid beneficiaries and does not allow enrollee’s to have much say in their own health care. Medicare expands beyond the poorest population, yet the program is designed to reflect the needs of the population it serves.
Medicaid is one of the several components that make up the nation’s health care system. It has grown exponentially over time and now provides health care benefits for nearly sixty million people. A program of this magnitude touches on every aspect of economic life, affecting beneficiaries to the government. Medicaid has become a major expenditure for the state government; a large fraction of state Medicaid spending is finance by grants from the Federal government (temporaryinsurance.com).
Medicaid has grown in terms of whom it covers and what it costs. Enrollment in Medicaid has climbed from a small four million in 1966 to forty-seven million in 2002. In these years Medicaid’s expenditures have increased from 0.4 billion dollars to 257 billion dollars (medical-news-today).
In my opinion I only see the cost of Medicaid going up instead of going down. More and more people are becoming more dependent on having Medicaid because either the premiums to carry health insurance through their employers are too high, or employers are not even offering health insurance to their employee’s. Although Medicaid or rather the government will reimburse a person for carrying their own health insurance, by the time they receive that reimbursement, they could be in debt.
I have been on Medicaid for approximately 20 years and have seen the declination of how long it takes a physician to