Medicaid Explained
Medicaid keeps making the headlines and they don’t
sound good: the program’s costs are shooting up, the
state’s budgets are straining to keep up, and while
no one was watching the taxpayer funded program has grown
from covering 34 million of us back in 1999 to covering more
than 47 million of us today.
Don’t Disregard the Benefits of Medicaid
Medicaid has become the largest source of disability care
financing in the U.S. For those of us with disabilities and
for the health providers who care for them, Medicaid has
been an invaluable safety net. More often than not, Medicaid
has played a critical role in the healthcare of the disabled
by providing coverage along with greater access to care.
Medicaid has grown consistently despite the debates that
spiral around its skyrocketing costs (as well as a pair of
controversial efforts in Missouri and Tennessee to scale
it back). And as its grown, the program has also become extremely
complicated.
Clearing Up the Confusion Around Medicaid
There are Federal laws that provide at least half of the
funds for the program’s administration, but they are
attached to a detailed set of limitations and requirements
where eligibility and financing are concerned. And there
are a variety of State laws (the States pay for the remaining
half) that control who will provide it. The two sets of legislation
often collide in ways that can be difficult to follow.
Can I Benefit From Medicaid?
Just answering a simple questions such as "are you
eligible?" or "what coverage will you be eligible
for?" can be rather difficult to do. But there are a
few things we can tell you that you’ll need to know:
- Each State determines the amount, type, scope and duration
of Medicaid’s services.
- Each State is responsible for establishing its own Medicaid
eligibility standards.
- Each State sets the rates and payments for services.
- Each State administers its own Medicaid program.
- Medicaid is getting more and more expensive. The fight
to limit the costs of the program has become a major concern
for law makers and as a result, the plan can seem to change
weekly. It will be important to get details on your local
plan from your State’s Medicaid Association.
- Medicaid is changing rapidly. The program is being rewritten,
adapted, developed, reviewed, implemented, and amended
by Congress, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the
States, and the courts in almost every state. The features
these efforts have worked to provide everything from more
effectively targeted medical services for the developmentally
disabled to a discounted prescription drug plan for the
nation’s seniors.
Medicaid Is There for You
Finally, it should be noted that the Medicaid program serves
as a healthcare safety net for every one of us. It was created
1965 to assist States in their attempt to provide adequate
medical care to those in need. But, this was long before
disability care services came into focus publicly, and as
a result it’s evolved into the more comprehensive program
it is today.
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